THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

OF  THE 

ANGLO-SAXON  RAGE 

M'V-B-KNOX 


I 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE 
ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


BY 

M.  V.  B.  KNOX 
«t 

Author  of  **  A  Summer's  Saunterings,"  "A  Legend  of 

Schroon  Lake,"  M  A  Winter  in  India 

and  Malaysia,"  etc. 


"If  it  be  true  that  nothing  human  can  be  without 
interest  for  a  man.  surely  that  which  tells  of  the  re. 
ligious  belief  of  our  forefathers  must  be  of  deepest 
and  nearest  interest.  It  had  something  to  do  in  mak- 
ing us  what  we  are." 

J.  M.  Kemble 


BOSTON 

SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &  COMPANY 
1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  <&»  COMPANY 


TO 

MY  WIFE 


281429 


"The  roots  of  the  present  lie  deep 
in  the  past,  and  nothing  is  dead  to 
the  man  who  would  learn  how  the 
present  comes  to  be  what  it  is." 

Stubb's  "Constitutional 
History  of  England." 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

The  religious  life  comes  of  man's  relation  to  the 
great  Creator.  On  that  relation  depends  highest 
worth  to  the  individual  and  in  the  aggregate,  to  the 
nation.  Man  is  a  religious  being  whether  found  in 
barbarian  wilds  or  in  the  whirl  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. His  religion  has  always  had  much  to  do  in 
shaping  his  progress.  The  savage  depends  upon  his 
fetich,  the  civilized  man  upon  the  word  of  the  seers. 
Doubtless  God  in  some  way  answers  the  cry  of  all  his 
children  no  matter  by  what  means  they  try  to  ap- 
proach him. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  have  all  along  been  most  de- 
vout. The  first  glimpses  of  these  people  show  them 
to  have  been  highly  religious,  with  a  spirit  most  in- 
dependent and  stubborn  and  on  their  coming  to 
Britain  these  peculiarities  and  other  valuable  ones 
were  steadily  developed.  With  willingness  to  work 
or  to  fight,  with  an  aggressive  instinct  keenly  alive  to 
opportunities,  having  a  language  well  adapted  to 
human  needs,  and  later  with  an  open  Bible,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  they  became  great  and  powerful. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  trace  the  forces 
of  the  religious  life  that  have  aided  the  English- 
speaking  race  to  become  so  mighty  and  successful. 
It  will  be  shown  how  in  various  fields  of  its  civiliza- 
tion these  forces  have  been  present  and  active.  Many 
means  besides  the  distinctly  church  beliefs  and  prac- 
tices have  helped  in  that  elevation.  At  the  first  the 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

Anglo-Saxon  was  a  faithful  servant  of  Woden  as 
later  he  became  obedient  to  Christ. 

This  work  is  not  another  church  history.  Yet  as 
the  denominations  have  shown  the  religious  life,  or 
have  neglected  it,  their  history  has  been  asked  to 
yield  its  testimony.  Wide  search  in  various  fields 
of  racial  life  has  been  made  in  order  to  trace  as  much 
as  possible  the  active  principles  leading  upward,  ever 
present  and  forceful.  As  the  twentieth  century  is 
passing  it  is  pleasing  to  note  that  the  religious  life  so 
constructive  through  the  ages,  now  more  unbound 
than  at  any  previous  epoch,  is  a  mightier  force  than 
ever  in  fashioning  that  noblest  of  all  endeavor,  ex- 
alted manhood  and  womanhood. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE    OF    THE    ANGLO- 
SAXON  RACE. 


CHAPTER  I 

From  the  beginning  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  England 
showed  in  a  marked  degree  the  strong  elements  of 
character  that  since  have  made  them  great.  This 
mighty  race,  wherever  located,  now  plays  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  world's  best  progress.  Long 
before  obtaining  a  foothold  in  Britain,  the  three 
closely  related  tribes  finally  forming  the  first  perma- 
nent settlement,  had  harassed  under  the  name  of 
Saxons  the  coast  of  Britain  from  the  Wash  to 
Southampton,  compelling  a  line  of  fortifications  to 
be  erected  by  the  Roman  occupants,  and  a  fleet  to  be 
sustained  under  command  of  the  Count  of  the  Saxon 
shore. 

The  homeland  of  the  Angles,  Saxons  and  Jutes  on 
the  continent  compelled  a  life  of  poverty  and  strug- 
gle. Their  surroundings  and  life  made  them  hardy, 
brave,  and  venturesome.  Natural  selection  going 
on  most  actively  under  such  conditions  would  leave 
alive  those  strong  of  limb  and  body,  as  well  as  brave 
of  heart. 

They  had  learned  better  than  any  partly  civilized 
people  known  the  high  worth  of  woman,  and  were 
not  slow  in  showing  it,  for  they  gave  her  a  promi- 
nent place  in  managing  domestic  affairs,  as  also  a 
place  in  their  councils  and  even  in  their  warlike  ex- 
peditions. They  prized  chastity,  the  high  qualities 
attributed  to  the  Germans  by  Tacitus  being  found  in 
the  tribes  settling  in  Britain.  Whether  on  the  con- 


2  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

tinent  or  in  Britain  they  were  truly  religious.  Hav- 
ing settled  in  Britain  they  conducted  the  worship  of 
Woden,  Thor,  and  other  gods,  with  temples  erected 
to  them.  Following  the  Latin  term,  our  ancestors 
of  that  period  are  often  spoken  of  as  barbarians. 
Their  social  and  intellectual  position,  to  be  sure, 
was  much  behind  that  of  Rome  and  Constantinople, 
but  a  people  with  considerable  laws  put  into  con- 
stant practice,  using  some  of  the  Greek  alphabet  as 
runes,  capable  of  forming  extensive  leagues  both  to 
resist  the  aggressive  Romans  and  to  make  wide  con- 
quests by  land  and  sea,  cultivating  the  soil,  having 
domesticated  animals,  and  mounting  large  bodies 
of  cavalry  for  battle,  facile  in  the  use  of  iron,  orig- 
inating poetry  and  myths  of  no  mean  order,  having 
a  religious  system  with  idols,  priests,  mysteries,  were 
no  mean  barbarians. 

The  free  spirit  which  in  the  racial  progress  has 
given  rise  to  parliaments  and  a  constitutional  mon- 
archy, to  a  written  constitution  and  a  federated  re- 
public, can  be  detected  in  those  venturesome,  vindic- 
tive freebooters  that  caused  fear  along  the  Saxon 
shore,  and  later  at  Ebbsfleet.  Free  churches  have 
come  of  the  same  spirit.  A  contemporary  said  of 
them  that  a  boat-load  would  all  command  and  all 
obey  at  the  same  time.  Never  was  the  neck  of  the 
long-haired  Saxon  put  beneath  the  yoke.  They 
were  free  men.  Covetous  of  the  country  so  much 
better  than  their  own  dreary  land,  they  persisted 
through  the  centuries,  undaunted  by  the  wide  and 
dangerous  German  ocean,  unbeaten  by  the  stubborn 
Britons  who  incessantly  resisted  conquest,  another 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  3 

generation,  when  one  had  perished,  carrying  for- 
ward the  remorseless  purpose.  A  sense  of  destiny 
or  duty  seemed  to  pervade  them. 

The  part  played  by  Pope  Gregory  in  Christianiz- 
ing Britain  must  in  the  affections  of  the  converted 
race  ever  cover  that  man's  memory  with  a  halo  of 
glory.  His  glowing  determination  followed  up  to 
lead  the  conquerors  of  Britain  to  Christ  can  never 
be  forgotten.  The  group  of  English  slaves  seen  by 
him  in  the  market  of  Rome,  formed  by  their  marvel- 
ous physical  beauty  a  Macedonian  call  in  the  heart 
of  Gregory.  He  then  determined  that  those  pagan 
Angles  must  be  made  truly  angels,  their  land,  Deira, 
should  be  freed  from  the  wrath  of  God,  abiding  in  its 
very  name,  their  king,  JElla,  should  be  caused  to 
hear  the  Alleluias  of  redeemed  souls.  Hindered  him- 
self from  going  to  them  and  elected  pope,  he  was  in 
a  better  position  still  to  effect  their  evangelization. 
In  selecting  the  monk  Augustine  to  lead  the  mission 
to  Britain  he  was  fortunate,  since  the  planting  by 
his  hand  and  by  his  judicious  administration  was 
never  wholly  uprooted. 

Again  Ebbsfleet  in  Kent  was  the  point  where  the 
landfall  occurred  which  was  the  second  time  to  revo- 
lutionize Britain  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Augus- 
tine and  his  forty  monks  were  bringing  a  new  re- 
ligion, a  new  life,  a  new  civilization.  A  woman,  as 
often  in  the  history  of  that  people,  was  a  beneficent 
aid  to  better  things.  Bertha,  the  French  princess, 
married  to  the  king  of  Kent,  clasped  hands  across  a 
century  and  a  half  with  Rowena,  the  daughter  of 


4  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Hengist.  Each  helped  prepare  the  way  for  Anglo- 
Saxon  supremacy.  Bertha,  as  one  condition  of  be- 
coming the  wife  of  the  Kentish  king,  was  to  have 
Christian  worship  in  her  new  home.  For  this  pur- 
pose an  old  British  church  at  Canterbury,  the  cap- 
ital, was  restored  from  its  ruins,  and  her  own  bishop, 
Luidhard,  conducted  services  in  it.  Her  influence 
upon  her  husband  might  have  given  him  a  leaning 
toward  Christianity.  Probably  her  representation 
to  Gregory  of  an  inviting  field  in  Kent  came  to  the 
pope  as  a  renewal  of  the  Macedonian  call  heard 
years  before. 

The  rather  spectacular  meeting  of  Ethelbert  and 
Augustine,  when  chanting  a  litany  he  came  with  his 
forty  monks  in  procession  bearing  a  painted  Christ 
aloft,  must  have  created  a  strange  impression  in  the 
king,  whose  usual  meeting  with  strangers  was  that 
of  battle  ax  and  battle  cry.  The  claim  of  the  mis- 
sionary through  Gallic  interpreters  that  he  had 
come  to  tell  the  king  and  his  people  of  a  better  way 
of  life  and  for  an  existence  forever  with  the  true  God 
after  this  life,  must  have  seemed  strange  to  Ethel- 
bert when  the  usual  message  of  strangers  coming 
into  his  territory  was  that  of  defiance  and  conflict. 
The  uncertainty  of  having  to  do  with  an  unknown 
people,  the  fear  of  magical  arts  if  audience  was 
granted  the  new  comers  in  the  church  or  in  any 
building,  led  the  king  to  appoint  the  first  meeting 
under  an  oak  as  if  to  seek  protection  from  the  sacred 
tree  of  the  Druids. 

Ethelbert's  answer  to  Augustine  was  politic  and 
cautious,  since  he  said  their  words  and  promises 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  5 

were  fair  but  new  and  that  he  could  not  forsake  the 
faith  of  his  fathers  and  of  the  whole  English  nation. 
But  he  would  give  the  missionaries  a  place  to  live  in, 
he  said,  protection,  food,  and  permission  to  make  as 
many  converts  among  his  subjects  as  they  could. 
He  assigned  them  a  residence  in  Canterbury  and  the 
church  of  St.  Martin's,  already  opened  for  the 
Queen's  services  they  used  for  public  worship. 
Their  devotion,  abstemious  habits  and  alluring  doc- 
trines led  many  of  the  people  to  forsake  their  old 
gods,  and  the  king  also,  after  a  few  months,  pro- 
fessed adherence  to  the  God  of  his  Queen.  His  con- 
version was  the  signal  for  a  great  movement  toward 
the  new  way  among  the  nobles  and  other  people  of 
rank,  so  that  on  Christmas-tide  following  their  ar- 
rival in  August  the  missionaries  baptized  ten  thou- 
sand converts.  Much  outward  expression  was  made 
of  this  new  faith  in  the  kingdom,  for  great  gifts 
were  bestowed  by  the  king  upon  Augustine  and  his 
co-workers.  Ethelbert's  own  palace  at  Reculver 
and  a  site  near  it  for  a  church  were  given.  Old 
British  churches  were  renovated  and  occupied,  new 
ones  built,  and  converts  gathered  in  all  parts  of  the 
little  kingdom.  Ethelbert,  though  urged  by  the 
pope  to  force  the  new  religion  upon  his  people,  would 
not  do  it,  already  seeing  that  advance  in  Christian 
evangelization  was  best  made  by  argument  and  per- 
suasion. He  counted  the  converts  as  Christian 
brethren,  being  very  affectionate  toward  them,  thus 
setting  a  gauge  of  fellowship  and  toleration  that  has 
run  with  less  or  greater  success  through  all  the 
church  life  of  the  race. 


6  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

A  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  passed  from  the 
first  irruption  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  no  effort  had 
been  made  to  teach  them  Christianity.  The  Britons, 
whom  they  were  forcing  back  step  by  step,  had  been 
Christianized  almost  from  apostolic  time,  but  they 
made  no  effort  to  lead  the  Germanic  invaders  to 
Christ.  So  intense  was  the  conflict  between  the  two 
peoples,  so  vindictive  and  so  destructive  to  life  and 
property  and  institutions,  that  the  Britons  seem  to 
have  engendered  the  bitterest  hatred  and  utmost  re- 
pugnance toward  them.  Hence  the  opportunity 
offered  the  Britons  to  convert  a  great  people  to 
Christ  was  lost.  Nor  would  they  join  with  Augus- 
tine for  the  same  noble  service,  thus  losing  a  second 
opportunity. 

Augustine  and  his  monks  brought  with  them  the 
mustard  seed  of  the  parable  in  another  way,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  vast  possessions  of  books  and  libraries 
now  the  invaluable  inheritance  of  the  English-speak- 
ing people.  These  first  books  were  a  Bible,  a  book 
of  the  Martyrs,  Apocrypha,  Lives  of  the  Apostles, 
and  Exposition  of  certain  Epistles  and  Gospels.  It 
is  significant  that  this  earliest  library  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons  was  a  religious  one. 

Augustine  referred  certain  questions  to  the  pope. 
It  was  ordered  that  Augustine  might  select  from  the 
native  customs  of  what  seemed  best  for  the  English, 
only  being  certain  they  were  pious  and  upright. 
No  nearer  marriages  were  to  be  contracted  than  the 
second  remove  of  kinship,  and  no  one  was  to  take  his 
stepmother  or  sister-in-law.  The  oversight  of  the 
native  British  church,  still  subsisting  in  the  western 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  7 

part  of  the  island,  not  yet  subdued  by  the  invaders, 
was  committed  to  Augustine  by  Gregory.  But  Au- 
gustine seems  to  have  bungled,  for  in  meeting  the 
British  clergy  he  peremptorily  demanded  that  they 
should  adopt  the  Roman  date  for  observing  Easter, 
different  from  their  own ;  that  they  should  follow  the 
Roman  mode  of  baptism  and  the  tonsure,  and  join 
with  him  in  converting  the  Anglo-Saxons.  But 
these  things  they  utterly  refused.  In  a  denuncia- 
tory manner  Augustine  consigned  them  to  destruc- 
tion. This  curse  seemed  to  be  fulfilled  a  few  years 
later  when  in  a  battle  near  Bangor  the  monks  were 
praying  for  the  success  of  the  British  arms  and  were 
slain  by  the  hundred  under  the  Anglo-Saxon  battle- 
axes. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  Gregory  to  plot  the  island, 
making  two  archiepiscopal  provinces,  the  seat  of 
one  at  London,  the  other  at  York,  dividing  each 
province  to  twelve  suffragan  bishops.  Both  cities 
had  the  promise  of  much  growth.  But  Augustine, 
now  archbishop  and  well  settled  at  Canterbury, 
seemed  to  prefer  that  city  to  London.  Yet  this  city 
was  soon  made  the  head  of  a  diocese,  its  king  Sea- 
bert  having  been  converted,  and  Mellitus,  sent  from 
Rome,  made  its  bishop.  He  built  a  church,  St. 
Paul's,  on  the  site  of  a  temple  to  Diana. 

Paulinus  in  625  was  sent  to  York  nominally  as 
archbishop,  but  having  to  create  his  own  province, 
for  the  only  Christian  in  all  his  province  was  the 
Queen,  who,  a  daughter  of  Ethelbert  and  Bertha, 
went  to  Northumbria  a  wife  of  Edwin  the  king  on 
conditions  similar  to  those  of  her  mother,  having  an 


8  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

attendant  priest  and  the  privilege  of  Christian  wor- 
ship. Along  with  these  men  and  a  few  others  to  aid 
Augustine  helps  were  sent  by  Gregory  for  the  cere- 
monialism so  prominent  in  all  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period,  vestments,  ornaments,  relics  of  apostle  and 
martyr,  vessels  for  the  churches  and  more  invaluable 
books. 

It  was  decided  that  the  temples  of  the  old  worship 
should  not  be  destroyed  but  cleaned  of  idols,  sancti- 
fied by  holy  water,  and  having  relics  of  the  saints 
placed  in  them,  should  be  used  as  Christian  churches. 
In  place  of  bloody  offerings  and  heathen  rites  per- 
formed at  those  temples,  the  people  were  to  kill 
cattle  and  feast  upon  them  about  the  buildings  now 
made  churches,  having  their  hearts  filled  with  thank- 
fulness to  the  Giver  of  all  benefits. 

Gregory  was  greatly  elated  with  this  mission,  all 
the  more  that  this  people  were  counted  as  the  most 
savage  and  ferocious  of  all  the  Germanic  peoples. 
He  wrote  a  letter  to  Ethelbert,  calling  him  his  own 
son,  and  finally  urging  him  to  seek  the  conversion  of 
his  people  by  a  spotless  life,  by  exhorting,  soothing, 
correcting  them.  He  was  to  give  them  an  example 
of  good  works,  assured  that  the  story  of  his  deeds  in 
this  matter  would  spread  over  all  the  earth.  In  a 
similar  strain  he  wrote  to  Bertha,  congratulating 
her,  and  suggesting  if  she  had  not  used  her  extraor- 
dinary opportunities  to  the  best  advantage,  still  in 
the  present  success  she  would  be  highly  commended. 

As  the  work  expanded  the  pope  granted  Justus, 
then  archbishop,  the  right  to  ordain  bishops  for  that 
expansion.  Their  first  attempt  for  the  conversion 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  9 

of  Northumbria  came  from  Kent.  Edwin,  the  king 
of  that  country,  desired  Ethelberga,  the  daughter 
of  Ethelbert,  for  his  wife,  but  this  her  brother  Ead- 
bald  refused  unless  Edwin  would  favorably  consider 
becoming  a  Christian  and  permit  a  priest  to  accom- 
pany the  princess  to  his  court.  These  conditions 
being  acquiesced  in  she  was  married  to  him.  Edwin 
had  been  greatly  impressed  in  a  supposed  vision 
while  in  exile  to  adopt  Christianity.  He  now  prom- 
ised to  become  a  Christian  if  an  expedition  against 
Wessex  was  successful.  The  expedition  of  Edwin 
was  all  he  hoped  for,  yet  he  hesitated  to  turn  Chris- 
tian. Finally  the  king  calling  together  his  wise  men 
laid  the  question  of  a  change  before  them.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Witan  the  high  priest  of  the  old  faith 
was  first  to  speak,  saying  that  their  old  gods  could 
not  be  of  much  power  since  he  himself  had  served 
them  with  all  devotion,  but  that  he  had  received 
fewer  favors  than  many  others  less  devout.  If  the 
promise  of  honors  from  the  new  God  was  better,  he 
was  in  favor  of  adopting  the  new  faith.  More  sensi- 
ble was  the  speech  of  an  aged  thegn  who  said  that 
the  life  of  man  was  like  what  they  had  seen  in  their 
halls  of  feasting,  a  sparrow  flying  in  from  the 
night  outside,  flitting  about  for  a  few  moments,  and 
then  flying  out  of  the  other  door  into  the  darkness. 
If  the  new  religion  could  tell  whence  man  came  and 
whither  he  went,  he  wished  to  adopt  it.  It  was 
finally  decided  by  the  Witan  to  forsake  the  old  and 
accept  the  new.  At  once  Edwin  and  his  nobles  and 
many  others  were  baptized.  It  is  said  that  no  less 
than  ten  thousand  were  in  one  day  baptized  in  the 


10  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Swale,  entering  the  water  two  by  two,  each  plung- 
ing the  other  under  water. 

Paulinus,  the  Queen's  priest,  now  saw  the  first 
fruits  of  his  long  waiting  and  unwearied  labors. 
When  preaching  the  new  way,  one  of  his  journeys 
among  the  Cheviots  was  no  less  than  thirty-six  days 
in  length,  teaching  and  catechizing  the  people  who 
flocked  to  him.  His  labors  must  have  been  pro- 
digious and  tireless  since  they  extended  over  all 
parts  of  the  north  country.  However,  the  religious 
life  reached  by  his  converts  must  have  been  slight, 
the  first  short  steps  towards  the  new  way.  Edwin 
put  up  a  stone  church  at  York  in  place  of  the  mean 
one  of  wattles  and  mud  previously  put  up  for  the 
worship  by  the  Queen  and  her  priest.  The  curious 
visitor  at  Yorkminster  to-day  is  shown  beneath  this 
magnificent  pile  the  remnants  of  Anglo-Saxon  stone- 
work foundations  of  the  structure  erected  twelve 
hundred  years  ago  under  the  impulse  of  the  earnest 
Paulinus. 

Edwin,  as  Britwaldar,  after  his  conversion  be- 
came an  active  helper  in  reaching  those  not  yet 
adopting  Christianity.  Through  his  influence 
Earpwald,  King  of  the  East  Angles,  and  his  people 
accepted  the  new  faith.  In  Edwin's  time  the  saying 
arose  that  a  woman  with  her  new  born  babe  on  her 
bosom  could  walk  unharmed  from  sea  to  sea.  The 
beneficent  spirit  of  the  king  was  shown  in  having 
brazen  dippers  hung  beside  all  the  springs  in  his 
domains  for  thirsty  travelers  to  drink. 

Penda,  king  of  Mercia  in  mid-Britain,  was  still 
a  most  vigorous  representation  of  the  old  faith. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  11 

He  joined  with  Cadwalla,  the  Christian  king  of  the 
Welsh,  in  an  attack  upon  Edwin,  causing  his  defeat 
and  death.  With  the  death  of  Edwin  the  nascent 
church  fostered  by  him  was  all  but  ruined,  for  those 
hardy  warriors  could  not  well  comprehend  the  worth 
of  a  religion  whose  deity  did  not  protect  its  believers 
from  destruction  by  those  whose  belief  represented 
the  gods  of  their  former  faith.  Northumbria  being 
devastated  by  Penda  and  Cadwalla,  Paulinus  and 
the  widow  of  Edwin  fled  back  to  Kent.  However, 
Paulinus  left  a  missionary  at  York,  James,  a  subor- 
dinate cleric,  who  successfully  held  together  some  of 
the  Christians,  secretly  teaching  and  baptizing  such 
as  he  could  induce  to  remain  steadfast  or  could  lead 
to  the  new  faith. 

Later  Penda  attacked  Wessex,  whose  king  and 
people  had  recently  become  Christians,  which  seemed 
enough  to  lead  the  pagan  warrior  to  go  against  that 
kingdom.  Not  yet  satisfied,  Penda  pushed  his  vic- 
torious arms  against  the  East  Angles.  Their  king, 
Segebert,  weary  with  the  wars  and  reigning,  had  ab- 
dicated the  throne  some  time  before,  and  had  re- 
tired to  a  monastery  for  seclusion  and  devotion,  but 
on  the  approach  of  the  terrible  Penda  was  taken  by 
the  people  and  put  at  the  head  of  the  army  since 
they  thought  he  could  better  lead  them  than  his  son. 
With  only  a  wand  instead  of  a  sword  the  king  did 
the  best  he  could,  but  the  superb  generalship  of 
Penda  prevailed  and  Segebert  was  slain  with  many  of 
his  people. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  part  played  by  the  Celtic  missionaries  in  the 
conversion  of  the  northern  part  of  England  was 
most  noble.  Owing  to  some  intestine  conflicts  the 
Prince  of  Bernicia  fled  to  the  Scots,  and  at  the  mon- 
astery of  lona  being  taught  the  Christian  doctrine, 
accepted  it.  On  his  return  to  govern  his  kingdom 
he  brought  missionaries  with  him,  but  the  leader  of 
the  band,  not  being  a  success,  deserted  his  post  and 
returned  to  lona.  Recounting  his  experiences 
among  the  Northumbrians,  he  was  asked  by  one  of 
the  chapter  if  he  had  not  attempted  to  feed  those 
weak  ones  with  strong  meat  instead  of  milk  as  babes. 
This  spirit  was  caught  by  the  chapter  as  marking 
the  speaker,  Aidan,  providentially  for  the  same  mis- 
sion. 

Coming  to  King  Oswald  he  was  granted  the  in- 
hospitable island  of  Lindisfarne,  where  he  built  a 
monastery.  From  this  central  station  Aidan  and 
his  fellow  workers  went  over  all  Northumbria  from 
the  Tyne  to  the  Humber,  preaching,  teaching,  bap- 
tizing. As  more  monks  were  needed  the  hive  at  lona 
sent  them  out  to  help  Aidan.  The  people  flocked 
together  to  hear  and  learn,  churches  were  built, 
money  and  lands  were  given  by  the  king  to  build 
monasteries  as  multiplied  centers  of  evangelization. 
The  Scriptures  were  diligently  studied  by  these 
priests,  who  also  urged  the  people  to  read  them. 
These  Celtic  monks  following  their  home  station  in 

12 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  13 

fasting  and  in  distributing  to  the  poor,  never  grew 
rich,  and  the  monasteries  were  but  poor  and  meanly 
furnished.  Oswald  caught  the  spirit  of  his  great 
teachers  for  one  day,  so  the  story  goes,  when  feast- 
ing with  Aidan  present,  the  servitor  handing  the 
king  a  silver  dish  told  him  that  a  street  full  of  poor 
were  begging  alms.  He  then  refused  the  food,  send- 
ing it  to  the  suffering  ones  outside,  and  also  broke 
the  silver  bowl  into  fragments  and  sent  them  for  dis- 
tribution as  money  among  the  people. 

The  kings  in  the  little  kingdoms  mostly  led  in  ac- 
cepting Christianity.  Birinus,  a  spirited  continen- 
tal monk,  going  to  the  pope  for  appointment  to  mis- 
sion work  was  assigned  to  the  extremest  western 
regions,  but  finding  Wessex  still  heathen,  stopped 
for  work  in  that  kingdom.  The  king,  Cynegils,  ac- 
cepting the  new  way  was  baptized,  the  devout  Os- 
wald from  Northumbria  was  present,  encouraging 
the  royal  neophyte  and  took  the  daughter  of  Cyne- 
gils back  to  Northumbria  as  his  wife.  On  the  suc- 
cess of  Birinus  the  Scotic  missionaries  flocked  from 
the  north  to  help  him,  and  a  bishopric  was  set  up  at 
Dorchester.  Mostly  under  the  labors  of  these 
monks  from  the  north  the  work  went  on.  By  the 
beginning  of  the  ninth  century  the  house  of  Cedric, 
in  Egbert,  controlled  all  the  kingdoms.  His  son, 
Ethelwulf  set  up  a  system  of  tithes,  establishing  the 
"Church  of  England." 

Mercia,  as  well  as  the  other  kingdoms,  must  have 
the  gospel  light.  Peada,  a  son  of  the  pagan  Penda, 
being  granted  some  share  of  the  government  of  his 
father,  sought  the  daughter  of  Oswald  in  marriage 


14  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

but  was  refused  unless  he  would  become  a  Christian, 
and  be  baptized.  When  on  the  marital  embassy  to 
Northampton  he  listened  to  the  statement  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  the  promise  of  an  heavenly  inheritance, 
the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  he  declared  he  would  become  a  Christian  even 
though  denied  the  hand  of  Elfleda,  and  so  with  his 
retinue  was  baptized.  Returning  to  Mercia  he  took 
with  him  four  priests,  one  Scot  and  three  English, 
whose  preaching  led  many  of  the  nobles  and  common 
people  to  accept  baptism.  Even  Penda  did  not  ob- 
struct this  movement,  but  astute  man  of  affairs  as 
he  was,  insisted  that  those  receiving  the  new  teach- 
ings should  live  up  to  them,  heartily  despising  those 
who  did  not,  saying  that  they  were  contemptible  and 
wretched  who  did  not  obey  their  God  in  whom  they 
believed.  A  bishopric  was  set  up,  Diuma,  a  Scot, 
being  made  bishop.  In  time  Mercia  became  very 
rich  in  monasteries,  churches,  priories  and  abbeys. 

By  the  death  of  Penda  the  last  great  opponent  of 
Christianity  perished.  Oswald  of  Northumbria 
finding  that  Penda  devised  an  attack  upon  his  peo- 
ple, offered  that  formidable  warrior  presents  as  trib- 
ute, but  these  being  refused  Oswald  bravely  deter- 
mined to  meet  the  foe  though  with  a  much  inferior 
force.  Making  a  vow  to  bestow  grounds  for  twelve 
monasteries  if  successful,  and  to  dedicate  his  daugh- 
ter of  but  a  year  to  the  sacred  life  of  a  nun,  he 
fought  the  battle  of  Wenevid  utterly  defeating 
Penda  and  killing  him. 

After  Milletus  was  driven  away  from  Essex  the 
East  Saxons  remained  joined  to  their  idols  forty 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  15 

years,  when  their  king,  called  Sigebert  the  Little, 
visiting  Oswald  in  a  familiar  manner  was  led  to 
accept  Christ  by  Oswald  drawing  a  contrast  between 
the  wooden  idols  of  the  old  cult  and  the  eternal  Cre- 
ator and  supreme  Ruler  of  the  Universe.  He  and 
his  retinue  were  baptized.  On  his  return  to  Essex 
he  took  two  priests  with  him,  and  of  these  Cedd, 
after  the  two  had  been  most  successful  in  making 
converts  and  building  churches,  was  raised  to  the 
place  of  bishop. 

Cedd  was  led  by  Oswald  to  build  a  monastery  as  a 
special  place  of  that  king's  devotions,  and  where 
buried  he  might  have  the  benefit  of  the  special 
prayers  of  the  holy  men  in  the  monastery.  Cedd 
chose  a  place  among  some  craggy  hills  deeming  he 
could  make  it  holy  by  praying  there  during  all  Lent 
and  by  fasting  every  day  until  evening.  He  finally 
died  in  the  monastery  of  the  plague,  and  thirty  of  his 
East  Anglican  disciples,  seeking  the  privilege  of 
becoming  monks  in  the  place  where  their  beloved 
bishop  had  died,  all  fell  victims  to  the  direful 
scourge. 

All  the  petty  kingdoms  had  now  been  converted 
except  Sussex.  Only  a  little  group  of  Celtic  mis- 
sionaries had  entered  it,  and  they  met  poor  success. 
Nearly  a  hundred  years  had  passed  since  Augustine 
had  landed  at  Ebbsfleet.  But  Wilfred,  being  ex- 
pelled from  Northumbria  fled  to  Sussex,  and  teach- 
ing Christianity  led  many  of  the  people  to  accept 
that  faith.  Ethelwalch,  their  king,  having  some- 
time before  visited  Northumbria,  had  forsaken  the 
idols  and  possibly  Wilfred  had  there  become  ac- 


16  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

quainted  with  him.  The  people  of  Sussex,  with 
their  king  a  Christian,  and  the  noble  Wilfred 
preaching  to  them,  forsook  the  old  way  and  by  the 
thousand  were  baptized  by  the  devout  missionaries. 

The  Isle  of  Selsey  was  given  to  Wilfred  by  Ethel- 
walch,  and  on  it  a  monastery  was  soon  built.  Fam- 
ilies to  the  number  of  eighty-seven  lived  on  the 
island  whose  slaves,  two  hundred  and  fifty,  were  set 
free.  Thus  Wilfred  preceded  Wilberforce  and  Lin- 
coln by  a  millennium.  Five  years  before  the  king  of 
Wessex  ravaging  Sussex  made  a  vow  to  Heaven  that 
he  would  bestow  one-fourth  of  his  conquests  upon 
the  church,  and  the  Isle  of  Wight  falling  into  his 
hands  he  fulfilled  the  vow  by  granting  it  to  Wilfred. 
Two  royal  youths  who  had  fled  from  Wight  were  be- 
trayed to  Coedwalla,  the  South  Saxon  king,  and 
doomed  to  death,  but  he  did  have  compassion  enough 
to  permit  Cynebert,  an  abbot,  to  teach  them  Chris- 
tianity and  baptize  them  before  the  murder,  so  that 
these  two  poor  princes  can  be  thought  of  as  the  first 
fruits  of  Christianity  in  that  beautiful  isle. 

Thus  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  converted  to  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  island  was  regarded  as  a 
Christian  country  by  the  papacy.  It  was  the  first 
of  the  Germanic  people  well  settled  to  accept  the  new 
faith.  Ulfilas  had  led  only  a  wandering  tribe  to 
Christ.  As  the  Roman  Empire  was  decaying  its 
vast  power  became  more  and  more  centered  in  the 
Emperors,  as  the  senate  and  officials  of  every  grade 
lost  the  power  held  by  them  before.  Into  the  place 
of  these  deposed  men  the  clergy  stepped.  As  the 
wreck  and  confusion  increased  these  churchmen 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  17 

seemed  providentially  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  times, 
introducing  a  beneficent  control  of  matters  and  a 
direction  of  progress  that  were  touched  by  a  kind- 
lier spirit  than  the  old  ways,  since  they  ruled  more 
by  persuasion  and  high  example  than  by  brutal 
force  common  in  that  age. 

In  the  despair  of  the  Roman  people  the  Christians 
were  alone  hopeful,  being  confident  of  the  care  of 
the  Heavenly  Father,  and  with  assurance  of  blessed 
life  after  this  one,  were  not  in  despair  regarding 
life  here.  Even  when  monasteries  and  churches 
were  destroyed  the  clergy  remained  to  be  rallying 
centers  for  renewed  efforts.  In  those  dreadful  cen- 
turies the  church  was  the  most  permanent  institution, 
and  its  clergy  were  set  to  meet  the  most  important  de- 
mands arising  amidst  the  confusion.  Princes  used 
them  as  envoys.  Christianity  met  those  incoming 
hordes  of  strong  Teutonic  peoples  in  England,  finally 
leading  them  all  to  that  faith. 

But  to  the  student  of  history  it  brings  a  pang  of 
regret  that  in  the  contact  of  Christianity  with 
heathenism  it  lost  a  degree  of  its  simplicity  and 
apostolic  purity.  Sometimes  the  sayings  of  the 
Fathers  were  substituted  for  those  of  the  Master. 
Some  of  the  clergy  had  deteriorated,  ignorance  as  a 
plague  prevailed,  crimes  even  that  chill  the  blood 
were  not  unknown  among  them,  imposture  was  prac- 
ticed in  reputed  miracles,  the  bishops  clutched  riches 
and  power,  and  growing  away  from  the  people  often 
assumed  a  state  and  dominancy  far  alien  from  the 
gentle  Galilean. 

While    these    excrescences    and    others    upon    the 


18  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

church  were  injurious  to  it,  they  were  not  fatal.  It 
offered  many  ameliorations  of  spirit  and  material 
conditions.  The  missionaries  brought  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  a  larger,  better  knowledge  of  industries,  set- 
ting at  work  higher  social  and  economic  conditions 
of  their  converts.  This  influence  in  the  interminable 
wars  among  the  little  kingdoms  was  mostly  for 
peace  and  amity.  The  weak  were  protected,  the 
poor  relieved,  the  slaves  set  free.  The  monasteries 
were  the  places  of  agricultural  industry,  seats  of 
learning,  and  they  possessed  about  all  the  literature 
and  literary  spirit  of  the  times. 

The  missionaries  found  a  Germanic  people  almost 
untouched  by  extraneous  influences,  who  had  during 
the  centuries  in  England  developed  their  racial  pe- 
culiarities by  themselves.  Into  such  strong  soil  the 
seeds  of  the  gospel  fell.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
gain  converts  by  the  sword.  Not  one  Anglo-Saxon 
prince  did  the  part  of  Charlemagne  with  the  Old 
Saxons.  Those  deep-souled  pagans  in  the  Octarchy 
were  not  insensible  to  the  grand  truths  of  the  gos- 
pel. The  new  faith  protected  the  lowly  and  lifted 
them  up,  threw  a  shielding  hand  over  the  weak,  stood 
stoutly  against  the  aggressions  of  the  lordly  ones,  all 
of  which  aided  in  gaining  a  hold  upon  the  affections 
of  the  people. 

The  conversion  of  the  island  was  not  cataclysmic. 
Nearly  three  generations  passed  before  it  was  ac- 
complished. Even  then  many  of  the  old  customs 
and  beliefs  remained,  the  use  of  charms,  amulets,  and 
incantations  persisted  among  the  people,  while  some 
of  the  pagan  festivals,  slightly  changed  and  given  a 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  19 

new  name,  were  carried  forward.  The  Celtic  part 
of  the  west,  thronging  in  at  the  north  from  Ireland 
through  lona,  did  most  noble  work.  A  larger  share 
of  England  was  led  to  the  new  faith  by  them — 
Northumbria,  Mercia,  Wessex,  East  Anglia,  Essex 
in  its  second  turning,  and  lastly  Sussex,  all  owed 
their  conversion  mostly  to  those  rare  Celtic  toilers. 

Differences  between  the  missionaries  direct  from, 
tome  and  those  from  the  north  were  certain  to 
•ise.  The  form  of  the  tonsure,  the  mode  of  bap- 
tism, the  date  of  Easter,  were  some  of  those  issues. 

It  was  deemed  best  to  seek  a  final  adjustment  of 
the  matter  and  a  conference  at  the  call  of  Oswald 
met  at  the  monastery  of  Whitby. 

Scotland's  three  great  bishops  to  Northumbria, 
Aidan,  Finan,  and  Colman,  whose  labors  covered 
thirty  years,  wrought  a  mighty  revolution  in  the 
religious  life  in  Northumbria  and  beyond.  It 
seemed  for  a  time  as  though  these  devoted  mission- 
aries would  impose  their  high  spirit  upon  all 
England.  Their  vows  of  poverty  were  kept,  their 
travels  over  all  the  country  were  tireless,  the  hills 
and  fens  and  the  poor  and  ignorant  were  everywhere 
reached  by  their  teaching  and  preaching.  Even  the 
head  monastery  at  Lindisfarne  was,  during  their 
time  only  a  group  of  low,  poor  buildings,  at  which 
even  the  king  as  he  came  there  to  worship  had  to 
put  up  with  the  fare  and  entertainment  of  the  ab- 
stemious monks.  The  whole  care  of  those  teachers, 
says  Bede,  was  to  serve  God,  not  the  world,  to  feed 
the  soul,  not  the  belly.  A  devotion  to  the  needs 
of  the  people,  and  a  persistent  use  of  the  limited  op- 


20  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

portunities  in  hand  were  most  charming.  Their 
high  morality,  their  superb  passion  for  humanity, 
their  simple  trust  in  the  Heavenly  Father,  their 
deep  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  small  reliance 
upon  the  papacy,  combined  to  foretell  a  rich  fruit- 
age of  noble  Christian  lives. 

Students  in  great  numbers,  especially  during  the 
decades  preceding  the  Conference  of  Whitby,  flocked 
to  Ireland  from  Northumbria  and  from  other  Anglo- 
Saxon  kingdoms.  The  schools  established  in  that 
island  were  the  best,  doubtless,  at  that  time  in 
Europe,  and  thousands  of  young  men  from  many 
parts  went  there  as  a  result  of  the  awaking  of  in- 
tellect caused  by  the  acceptance  of  Christianity. 
Says  a  historian,  "When  continental  Europe  and 
even  Britain  were  being  submerged  by  hordes  of 
pagan  Teutons,  Ireland,  out  of  reach  of  those 
waves  of  paganism,  was  building  up  good  schools, 
which  for  centuries  were  bright  beacons  of  culture 
and  Christianity."  These  various  schools  had  hun- 
dreds of  teachers  and  thousands  of  students. 
Then,  besides  these  renowned  places  of  enlighten- 
ment, local  teachers,  anchorites,  were  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  each  one  attracting  pupils 
to  his  lonely  cell.  All  Ireland  seemed  a  vast  univer- 
sity. From  these  seats  of  culture  monks  and 
teachers  by  hundreds  returned  to  England,  often 
becoming  potent  factors  in  the  conversion  of  their 
kindred.  They  did  not  stop  with  Christianizing 
the  island  but  pushed  across  the  narrow  seas  to  the 
continent,  hosts  of  them,  both  Celtic  and  Anglo- 
Saxon,  doing  heroic,  martyr  work  in  leading  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  21 

western  moving  people  there  to  accept  the  new 
faith.  The  names  of  Columban,  Gall,  and  Kilian, 
of  Wilfred,  Boniface,  and  Willibald,  will  always 
shine  brightly  in  the  annals  of  missionary  zeal  and 
self-sacrifice.  For  four  centuries  those  schools 
were  the  glory  of  Ireland,  and  the  labors  of  their 
students  form  a  surprising  chapter  in  the  progress 
of  those  obscure  centuries. 

The  prelates  to  this  date,  about  645,  had  all 
been  foreigners  but  about  this  time  several  bishops 
were  made  of  the  English  race.  The  pope  deter- 
mined to  send  to  England  for  archbishop  one  who 
would  be  free  from  local  animosities  and  the  friction 
not  wholly  obliterated  from  the  various  dioceses. 
Theodore,  a  Greek  from  Tarsus,  Cilicia,  the  native 
city  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  was  sent  as  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  with  Hadrian  as  a  helper,  whom  in- 
deed the  pope  chose  for  the  principal  place  before 
naming  Theodore,  but  who  would  not  accept  the 
high  office,  deeming  himself  unworthy  of  it.  These 
two  set  ardently  at  work  to  correct  the  evils  which 
had  crept  into  the  English  church.  Theodore  soon 
visited  all  the  territory  held  by  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
being  the  first  archbishop  whose  sway  was  thus 
widely  acknowledged.  He  and  Hadrian  set  up  a 
school  at  Canterbury  to  which  many  students  flocked 
from  all  parts  of  the  land.  In  this  school  were 
taught  the  Scriptures,  and  church  rules,  as  also 
Latin  and  Greek,  arithmetic,  poetry  and  astronomy. 
Forty  or  fifty  years  afterwards,  Bede  knew  some 
of  these  pupils  of  Hadrian  and  Theodore  who  could 
speak  the  Latin  and  Greek  as  readily  as  their  own 


22  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

English  tongue.  The  labors  of  Theodore  were 
more  direction  than  construction,  since  he  used  his 
authority  mostly  to  arrange  the  dioceses  by  which 
he  gave  form  to  the  episcopate,  and  helped  forward 
greatly  the  division  of  the  country  into  parishes. 
In  these  matters  his  work  is  perpetuated  to  this  day. 


CHAPTER  III 

With  the  increasing  influence  of  the  religious  life 
great  men  began  to  arise  who  had  determining  force 
upon  the  whole  life  of  the  awakening  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  church  instead  of  the  royal  families  gave  them 
to  the  world.  Contemporary  for  some  time  with 
Theodore  was  Wilfred,  a  native  of  England.  Be- 
ginning public  life  as  a  courtier,  he  changed  his 
purpose  at  a  time  of  dangerous  sickness  to  that  of 
the  monastic  life.  After  studying  in  England  he 
went  to  Rome,  spending  a  year  in  that  center  of 
culture  and  ecclesiastical  life.  Returning  to  Eng- 
land he  was  given  land  on  which  he  founded  the 
monastery  of  Ripon.  Into  this  monastery  the 
scholarly  Wilfred  was  careful  to  put  a  library,  one 
of  the  choice  books  being  a  copy  of  the  Bible  writ- 
ten on  purple  vellum  in  letters  of  gold.  Being 
made  bishop  of  Northumbria  he  sought  his  consecra- 
tion in  Gaul  instead  of  accepting  it  from  English 
prelates.  His  high  spirit  and  ostentatious  display 
of  retinue  and  dress  like  a  king,  and  priestly  inter- 
ference in  the  domestic  matters  of  King  Egfrid 
of  Northumbria,  caused  intense  opposition  to  him. 
Theodore,  the  archbishop,  in  Wilfred's  absence, 
divided  the  Northumbrian  diocese  into  three  parts, 
consecrating  bishops  for  each  and  appointing  them 
to  oversight.  An  appeal  to  Rome  was  vain  and 
Wilfred  fled  to  the  South  Saxons,  leading  many  of 
them  to  the  cross.  Although  he  and  Theodore  had 

23 


24  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

much  friction,  that  prelate  before  his  death  sought 
reconciliation  with  Wilfred.  After  a  most  remark- 
able life  of  toil,  conflict,  success,  and  high  purpose, 
he  died  in  the  minster  of  St.  Andrew,  Orundle,  of 
great  age  and  honor. 

Benedict  Biscop,  a  companion  of  Wilfred  to  Rome 
when  both  were  young,  was  used  by  Theodore  in 
founding  a  school  at  Canterbury,  later  erecting  the 
monastery  at  Wearmouth  and  one  at  Jarrow. 
Both  were  schools  for  priests,  the  latter  to  be  im- 
mortalized by  the  life  and  work  of  the  historian 
Bede.  Biscop  was  ardent  in  teaching  in  his  monas- 
teries, bringing  invaluable  books  from  Rome  for  his 
libraries.  He  sought  pictures  also,  and  relics  for 
his  English  houses.  Though  not  a  prelate  his  in- 
fluence was  wide  and  high,  and  his  work  in  the 
scholarly  line  was  nobly  perpetuated  in  the  Vener- 
able Bede. 

Another  great  man  whose  life  lends  luster  to  that 
age  was  Cuthbert,  also  of  Northumbria.  He  was 
made  abbot  of  Melrose,  but  his  sense  of  respon- 
sibility was  so  high  that  it  would  not  permit  him 
to  rot  in  his  cloister,  and  he  went  out  among  the 
people  of  that  locality,  especially  to  the  small  vil- 
lages and  lonely  mountain  regions,  preaching  to 
the  rustic  population.  Having  been  sent  to 
Lindisfarne  he  there  became  a  real  anchorite,  for, 
preparing  a  cell  on  a  neighboring  island,  he  built 
a  wall  about  it  so  high  that  he  could  see  out  of 
it  only  upward  toward  the  sky.  In  this  place,  made 
sacred  by  miracles,  he  spent  his  days  in  prayer 
and  meditation.  After  serving  two  years  as  a 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  25 

bishop  he  retired  again  to  the  islet  Fame  to  meet  the 
quiet  end  for  which  he  looked.  In  the  succeeding 
ages  when  the  Danes  were  ravaging  England,  his 
sacred  bones  were  hurried  away  from  Lindisfarne, 
and  after  being  carried  here  and  there  in  a  most 
remarkable  pilgrimage,  finally  were  deposited  in 
Durham  Cathedral,  where  they  repose  to-day. 

During  this  period  a  great  missionary  spirit  arose 
among  the  Anglo-Saxons  similar  to  that  a  hun- 
dred years  before  among  the  Celts.  Wilfred,  on 
one  of  his  journeys  to  Rome,  was  detained  a  winter 
in  Friesland,  where  he  led  many  of  the  nobles  and 
others  to  accept  Christianity.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  these  gains  were  preserved.  About  690, 
Willibrord,  an  Englishman,  with  eleven  companions 
went  to  the  continent,  visiting  Pippin,  Duke  of 
Gaul,  who  had  recently  conquered  the  Frieslanders 
and  who  permitted  Willibrord  to  go  preaching 
among  them.  Two  other  English  priests,  brothers, 
called  from  their  complexion  White  Hewald  and 
Black  Hewald,  being  seized  with  the  same  spirit, 
passed  from  Ireland  to  the  continent  in  order  to 
go  among  the  Old  Saxons.  Stopping  on  the  con- 
fines of  that  country,  they  were  treacherously  mur- 
dered by  the  village  reeve,  who  suspected  foul  pur- 
poses on  their  part.  Their  bodies  were  secured  by 
Pippin  and  buried  in  the  church  at  Cologne. 

While  Willibrord  went  to  Rome  after  relics  and 
other  aids  to  use  in  naming  and  consecrating  his 
churches,  his  companions  in  Friesland  selected  one 
of  their  number,  Swidbert,  to  go  to  Britain  for  con- 
secration as  bishop  of  the  Frisians,  and  who  return- 


26  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ing  preached  with  success  among  the  Boructuarians. 
After  more  years  and  more  success  among  the 
Frisians,  Willibrord  was  sent  by  Pippin  to  Rome, 
to  be  created  archbishop  of  that  people.  Down  to 
739  this  noble  missionary  toiled  on,  building 
churches,  enlarging  his  work,  and  creating  bishops. 
The  north  of  Holland  was  led  to  Christ  by  Adel- 
bert  of  royal  Northumbrian  blood.  Bavaria  and 
Gueldres  were  also  enlightened  by  Anglo-Saxon  mis- 
sionaries. But  the  one  who  is  justly  called  the 
apostle  of  the  Germans  was  Winfred,  a  West 
Saxon,  better  known  by  his  later  name,  Boniface. 
Like  so  many  engaged  in  this  missionary  movement 
to  the  continent,  he  was  of  gentle  blood.  Hearing 
of  Willibrord's  work,  he  joined  him  at  Utrecht, 
diligently  laboring  with  him  three  years,  and  was 
desired  by  Willibrord  to  remain  and  be  his  succes- 
sor, but  the  ardent  monk  who  had  brought  his  com- 
mission to  the  Germans  from  Rome  chose  to  push 
into  the  interior  of  that  pagan  country  among  the 
Hessians  and  Old  Saxons.  This  was  about  718. 
Through  the  varied  limitations  of  native  poverty, 
the  stern  climate  and  the  caprices  of  the  pagans, 
he  persisted  and  saw  thousands  converted.  Called 
to  Rome  he  came  back  archbishop  and  made  Mentz 
his  headquarters.  His  authority  also  extended 
over  the  French  clergy,  among  whom  he  introduced 
many  sadly  needed  reforms.  As  his  work  expanded 
Boniface  sent  eager  call  to  England  for  helpers, 
and  they  came,  men  and  women,  some  of  them  to 
seal  their  devotion  with  their  lives.  Schools  and 
monasteries  were  established  and  bishops  con- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  27 

secrated.  The  monastery  of  Fulda  stood  as  a  noble 
companion  of  Luxeuil  and  St.  Gall.  Having  grown 
to  an  old  man,  Boniface,  burning  for  the  salvation 
of  other  peoples,  went  among  the  West  Frisians 
and  when  about  to  baptize  a  large  company  of 
converts,  he  and  his  companions  were  suddenly  set 
upon  by  an  armed  band  of  natives  and  all  slain. 
Seventeen  years  later,  Willebad,  a  Northumbrian 
priest,  landed  at  the  very  spot  of  this  massacre, 
and  being  welcomed  by  the  natives,  was  able  to 
reach  grandest  results  and  turn  the  people  almost 
totally  to  the  new  way.  Besides  this  he  pushed  his 
labors  beyond,  to  the  Ems,  Weser  and  Elbe.  Later 
the  same  spirit  impelled  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries 
to  bring  the  people  of  Norway  and  Sweden  to 
Christ,  and  later  still,  those  of  Denmark. 

In  accordance  of  the  beliefs  in  miracles,  visions 
and  wonders,  held  at  that  time  by  the  church  in  all 
parts  of  Europe,  the  early  missionaries  to  England 
inculcated  the  belief  in  these  providences,  and  by 
them  the  religious  life  was  most  deeply  affected. 
Under  their  old  cult  the  pagan  Anglo-Saxons  had 
been  accustomed  to  look  for  prodigies  and  wonders, 
so  that  their  minds  were  in  receptive  condition  for 
the  beliefs  in  them  under  the  new  faith.  Augustine, 
as  the  test  of  his  supremacy  over  the  early  British 
church,  resorted  to  a  miracle,  healing  a  blind  man, 
though  suspiciously  one  of  his  own  people.  Pope 
Gregory  warned  Augustine  against  appealing  too 
much  to  miracles.  The  great  historian,  Bede,  who 
has  given  the  world  nearly  all  that  is  known  of 
England  in  those  early  years,  down  to  his  death 


28  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

in  731,  placed  the  utmost  confidence  in  those  reputed 
wonders,  recording  them  with  a  natural  simplicity 
and  unquestioning  confidence  that  are  most  charm- 
ing. 

By  the  orders  from  Rome  no  church  or  monas- 
tery was  deemed  properly  constituted  unless  it  held 
some  relics  of  the  saints.  However  at  a  council 
of  Colquith  where  representative  churchmen  were 
gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  it  was  de- 
cided, contrary  to  the  Nicene  Council,  that  a  church 
could  be  consecrated  without  relics  of  the  saint  for 
whom  it  was  named.  A  figure  of  the  saint  might 
be  drawn  upon  the  wall  or  on  a  board.  The  re- 
mains of  the  apostles  were  called  upon  to  furnish 
vast  quantities  of  relics,  and  the  cross  of  Jesus  was 
also  most  prolific.  A  gold  key  made  from  the 
chains  of  Peter  and  Paul  was  sent  by  the  pope  to 
the  wife  of  Oswald,  and  the  wonder  is  if  the  devout 
lady  would  not  ask  how  those  chains  were  changed 
to  gold.  Then  as  the  sainted  ones  in  England  be- 
gan dying  off,  their  bodies  and  bones  were  most 
eagerly  sought  and  carefully  preserved,  to  give 
sanctity  and  miracle-working  power  to  some  founda- 
tion. The  value  set  upon  such  uncanny  relics  can 
be  surmised  from  the  care  of  Cuthbert's  miracle- 
working  bones  carried  for  years  from  one  place  to 
another  by  the  devoted  monks  lest  they  should  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  pagan  Danes  and  be  lost. 
The  bones  of  Oswald,  having  been  rescued  from  the 
battle  field  by  his  niece,  were  brought  to  the 
monastery  of  Bardney  where  they  wrought  many 
miracles,  as  did  the  dust  from  them.  The  fame  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  29 

these  bones  reached  Ireland  and  Germany  where 
relics  of  the  sainted  king  were  sought  and  used  for 
their  miraculous  power. 

Visions  were  common  as  well  as  miracles,  and 
these  were  thought  to  be  granted  often  in  connec- 
tion with  the  death  of  some  one  prominent  in  the 
church.  The  noble  Chad  deemed  himself  warned 
of  approaching  death  in  a  vision  of  heavenly  songs 
descending  to  the  oratory  of  his  cathedral  at  Lich- 
field.  The  burial  place  of  the  abbess  was  des- 
ignated by  a  great  light  let  down  from  heaven. 
As  her  death  drew  nigh,  her  assistant  saw  a  radiant 
human  body  taken  from  the  monastery  and  drawn 
up  to  heaven  by  golden  cords.  The  lame  and  blind 
were  healed  at  the  grave  of  this  abbess.  While 
Edwin  before  coming  to  the  throne  of  Northumbria 
was  a  fugitive,  a  tall  old  man  laying  his  hand  upon 
the  discouraged  king's  head,  assured  him  of  his 
kingdom  and  called  upon  him,  when  his  vision  was 
fulfilled,  to  accept  the  faith  of  Christ. 

It  can  be  understood  how  the  princes  and  nobles 
should,  with  their  better  information  and  wider 
contact  with  the  great  world,  easily  be  turned  from 
the  worship  of  idols  to  the  worship  of  the  spiritual 
creator  of  the  universe.  But  to  the  ignorant  com- 
mon people  nominally  following  their  leaders  in  the 
movement,  many  of  the  old  ways  clung  most 
tenaciously.  Even  a  king  illustrated  this  who  had 
an  altar  to  Christ  and  one  to  Woden  in  the  same 
temple.  In  place  of  the  feasts  under  the  old  cult, 
joyous  Christian  festivals  were  encouraged.  The 
horse  slain  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  old  gods  was  re- 


30  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

placed  by  a  bullock  upon  the  meat  of  which  the 
converted  people  feasted,  thankful  to  the  Great 
Giver  of  food  and  other  blessings.  The  names  of 
the  week  were  shaped  after  the  gods  just  deserted, 
and  from  an  old  worship  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
The  Easter  festival  probably  took  the  place  of  a 
festival  in  honor  of  Eastre,  a  northern  goddess. 
The  holiday  season  was  one  of  special  jollity  under 
the  old  ways  and  this  was  superseded  by  the  Christ- 
mas and  New  Year  festivals.  A  feast  held  at  mid- 
summer in  honor  of  Baldur,  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful conceptions  of  the  northern  mind,  was  replaced 
by  that  of  St.  John  Baptist.  This  god  in  several 
ways  prefigured  Christ  in  his  spotless  character  as 
well  as  in  his  death  and  resurrection.  At  times  of 
great  distress  or  danger  it  was  not  unknown  that 
the  people  turned  to  their  old  divinities.  When 
the  yellow  plague  was  causing  dismay  in  Essex, 
King  Sighere  and  his  people  with  him  relapsed  to 
the  old  idols,  and  Juraman,  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  was 
sent  there  to  win  them  back  to  Christianity.  Some 
of  the  superstitions  have  persisted  to  the  present, 
and  even  now  many  persons  prefer  to  see  the  moon 
over  the  right  shoulder  instead  of  the  left. 

It  was  the  glory  of  the  early  missionaries  that 
they  set  up  schools  in  which  to  educate  the  young. 
At  all  the  great  stations  for  evangelization  schools 
at  an  early  day  were  instituted,  primarily  indeed 
to  make  monks  or  nuns,  but  even  that  restricted 
object  was  a  noble  beginning  of  the  culture  of  the 
race.  Christianity  was  causing  a  superb  uplift  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  mind.  The  example  of  Gaul, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  31 

lying  so  close  to  the  island,  told  upon  the  education 
of  the  new  converts.  The  Celtic  monks,  as  they 
evangelized  Northumbria  and  much  of  the  country 
beyond,  moved  by  the  rich  influence  of  the  grand 
educational  spirit  in  Ireland,  everywhere  estab- 
lished schools  for  the  young  people  of  England. 
The  worth  of  these  schools  was  seen  in  the  great 
number  of  learned  men  that  arose  in  the  royal 
families  and  in  the  church,  while  the  great  intel- 
lectual epoch  of  Northumbria  presents  one  of  the 
brightest  views  of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  period. 

After  yielding  the  high  intellectual  fruits  so  con- 
spicuous through  two  or  three  generations,  a  sad 
mental  decay  set  in  that  closed  the  epoch.  It  may 
be  difficult  to  determine  all  the  causes  of  this  na- 
tional decay,  but  some  active  forces  can  be  seen, 
one  being  the  accumulated  enrichment  of  the  monas- 
tic houses,  in  which  the  monks  could  live  without 
the  manual  labor  of  the  preceding  generations, 
since  they  now  used  hired  help,  serfs,  and  even 
slaves,  to  do  what  was  once  their  glory  and  elevat- 
ing virtue.  Then  the  whole  of  the  Octarchy  had 
been  nominally  converted,  so  that  the  pressing  in- 
centive ever  present  with  the  early  monks  as  they 
were  confronted  by  more  or  less  defiant  or  uncon- 
quered  paganism  made  less  demand  for  the  spirit 
of  Augustine,  Aidan  and  Wilfred.  So  many  of 
the  nobles  and  princes,  as  well  as  persons  of  lower 
grade  had  turned  monks  that  Bede  feared  the  neces- 
sary men  would  not  be  found  in  case  of  national 
danger  to  defend  the  realm,  and  this  fear  found 
good  ground  when  later  the  stout  Danes  fell  upon 


32  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

decadent  England.  Alfred  the  Great  was  presaged. 
The  intertribal  wars,  "the  war  of  kites  and  crows," 
were  the  product  rather  than  the  cause  of  the  decay, 
and  yet  those  conflicts  must  have  accelerated  the 
downward  slide.  Along  with  this  decadence  came 
abandonment  of  schools,  and  the  education  even  of 
the  monks  sank  so  low  in  the  north,  formerly  so  re- 
nowned for  its  learning,  that  few  could  render  their 
Latin  church  service  into  the  vernacular,  and  not 
one,  Alfred  somewhere  says,  could  be  found  south 
of  the  Thames  who  could  do  that. 

In  the  monasteries,  in  spite  of  their  imperfec- 
tions, through  the  four  centuries  and  a  half  of  the 
religious  life  previous  to  the  Conquest,  abode  many 
principal  elements  of  progress,  in  education  and  in 
other  ways  of  man's  higher  nature.  These  institu- 
tions in  the  early  Anglo-Saxon  period,  and  through 
much  of  its  course,  must  not  be  judged  by  what 
they  became  in  later  generations,  or  by  what  they 
were  when  after  long  centuries  Henry  Eighth  sup- 
pressed them  altogether  as  a  menace  to  English 
civilization.  At  first  they  were  stations  of  self-sup- 
porting missions  similar  to  those  established  in  the 
nineteenth  century  by  some  enthusiastic  missiona- 
ries. They  had  long  existed  on  the  island  before 
the  advent  of  Augustine,  and  among  the  native 
Welsh  and  Scots  and  also  in  Ireland.  They  were 
founded  everywhere  on  the  continent.  It  was  there- 
fore no  innovation  for  Augustine  at  once  to  begin 
their  establishment.  The  monks  were  missionaries 
and  must  have  a  home. 

The  first  thought   of  the  missionaries  would  be 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  33 

a  house  to  cover  them,  and  food  and  raiment. 
These  they  must  principally  obtain  for  themselves, 
hence  the  community  was  industrial  as  well  as  re- 
ligious. Many  of  the  early  monks  to  England 
were  from  Italy  and  Gaul,  where  the  various  in- 
dustries were  much  more  advanced  than  in  England, 
so  that  a  portion  of  the  benefits  brought  by  them 
was  an  advance  of  industries.  The  debt  due  to 
those  monks  by  the  race  for  these  gifts  is  a  mighty 
one,  for  many  industries  that  later  have  aided  most 
in  the  financial  supremacy  of  England  were  either 
taught  in  a  better  way  by  the  monks  or  were  first 
introduced  by  them.  They  drained  marshes  and 
coaxed  the  fens  to  produce  most  abundant  crops, 
while  sandy  heaths  blossomed  under  their  touch. 
Roads  were  built  by  them,  as  well  as  bridges  and 
dikes  and  canals,  while  havens  for  ships  and  light- 
houses to  guide  the  sailors  were  the  result  of 
their  foresight. 

Even  the  foundations  of  the  nuns  were  centers  of 
industry,  not  alone  in  studies,  since  besides  the 
lighter  work  of  embroidery,  sewing  and  housekeep- 
ing, they  frequently  were  the  scenes  of  agricultural 
activity,  building  and  other  heavy  labors.  A 
legend  runs  that  Earswida,  with  the  blood  of  both 
Hengist  and  Clovis  in  her  veins,  erecting  a  monas- 
tery at  Folkstone  was  sought  in  marriage  by  a 
pagan  suitor  whose  hopes  her  father  encouraged. 
But  she  utterly  refused  the  proposal.  One  day,  so 
reads  the  story,  the  lover  coming  to  press  his  suit, 
found  her  superintending  the  erection  of  the  mon- 
astery, and  in  their  discussions  she  challenged  him 


84  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

to  secure  by  the  help  of  his  gods  the  lengthening  of 
a  rafter  cut  too  short,  and  when  he  failed  it  was 
lengthened  by  her  prayers. 

Manual  labor  was  made  respectable,  for  before 
it  was  delegated  to  the  lowest  classes,  but  under 
the  teaching  and  example  of  the  monks  became  a 
heritage  of  the  race.  Thus  Coelfrid,  though  noble 
born,  a  wide  traveler  and  highly  educated,  became, 
at  the  monastery  of  Ripon,  the  baker  to  the  chap- 
ter, conning  his  lessons  while  heating  the  oven. 
Benedict  Biscop's  cousin,  Easterwine,  a  king's 
thegn,  shared  the  labors  of  the  monks  in  his  mon- 
astery, working  in  the  garden,  kitchen  and  bake 
house  as  well  as  at  threshing,  winnowing  and  milk- 
ing, and  continued  these  'labors  after  being  elected 
abbot.  These  things  were  deemed  spiritually 
meritorious.  Then  such  examples  of  their  nobles 
and  of  their  spiritual  teachers  could  not  fail  in  ex- 
erting a  widespread  and  beneficent  influence  upon 
the  people  generally.  The  showing  of  the  Domes- 
day Book  is  that  the  lands  of  church  property  were 
better  cultivated  than  others.  Lingard  says  that 
not  more  than  one-sixth  of  the  inmates  of  a  mo- 
nastic establishment  were  kept  at  religious  duties, 
the  others  being  busy  at  various  industries,  as  hus- 
bandmen, mechanics,  herdsmen,  and  at  other  labors. 
Soames  says  there  were  four  branches  of  the  monks. 
First,  ordained,  to  minister  in  sacred  things,  per- 
manently domesticated  in  a  monastery.  Second, 
anchorites  or  hermits,  living  sometimes  with  the 
others,  again  alone  in  a  cell.  Third,  sarabaites, 
adopting  tonsure,  but  not  under  the  rule,  living 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  35 

three  or  four  in  a  house  by  themselves,  later 
degenerating  to  a  reproach  of  the  monastery. 
Fourth,  wandering  monks,  claiming  great  sanctity, 
but  lazy,  vile  hypocrites. 

If  a  great  debt  is  due  the  monks  for  industrial 
improvement  brought  by  them  to  the  Germanic 
people  whom  they  were  leading  to  the  new  faith, 
another  debt  is  due  them  for  their  work  in  the  lit- 
erary field.  In  this  they  were  both  conservitors  and 
producers.  As  Rome  was  the  repository  of  the 
classics  of  Italy  and  Greece,  it  could  not  but  hand 
them  over  to  such  students  as  the  old  monks  were. 
Representing  as  these  men  did,  amidst  the  decay  of 
the  empire,  something  of  the  new  spirit  of  civiliza- 
tion, they  kept  alive  in  some  degree  the  traditions 
of  the  love  and  respect  for  those  old  classics.  As 
the  monks  scattered  over  western  Europe,  they 
carried  Homer  and  Aristotle,  Cicero  and  Vergil 
in  the  priceless  manuscript  form  along  with  the 
Scriptures  and  missals  to  their  new  home.  They 
preserved  these  classics  and  much  other  ancient 
literature  from  the  destruction  of  the  former 
civilization  by  the  northern  peoples. 

Not  only  this,  but  they  were  the  only  historians 
through  those  periods  of  dismay  and  gloom,  whose 
writings  have  come  down  to  us.  The  chronicles, 
lives  of  saints,  annals,  histories  full  of  impossible 
miracles  and  legends,  are  now  of  unspeakable  worth 
to  the  historian.  Had  these  various  writings  of  the 
old  monks  not  been  preserved,  the  Middle  Ages  could, 
more  truthfully  than  now,  be  called  the  dark  ages. 
The  nuns  in  some  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  monasteries, 


36  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

true  to  their  helpful  natures,  were  often  busy  copy- 
ing manuscripts,  ornamenting  them  most  ex- 
quisitely, nor  did  they  stop  with  the  mechanical 
part  but  learned  letters  to  rich  results,  studying 
the  classics,  the  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers.  Latin 
was  a  favorite  with  them,  and  in  it  they  frequently 
carried  on  correspondence.  They  also  pursued 
Greek,  poetry  and  grammar. 

Of  vast  moment  to  the  religious  life  which  the 
people  were  developing  by  the  aid  of  the  monks 
and  the  monasteries,  was  such  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures as  was  followed  in  those  foundations.  The 
language  in  which  their  copies  to  study  were  writ- 
ten, was  the  Latin,  though  paraphrased  into  the 
vernacular  and  explained  in  it.  In  the  early  times 
the  monks  did  much  preaching,  their  most  common 
themes  being  the  Master  and  his  teachings  and  mir- 
acles. Some  of  the  monks  like  Bede  put  portions 
of  the  Scriptures  into  Anglo-Saxon  speech,  even 
that  royal  student,  Alfred,  so  rendering  portions 
of  them,  though  these  fragments  have  unfortunately 
been  lost.  The  Scotic  monks  coming  from  lona  and 
Ireland  were  especially  close  students  of  those 
oracles,  doubtless  superior  in  this  respect  to  the 
monks  from  the  continent. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Most  of  the  art  taking  root  during  this  epoch 
in  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  was  introduced  by  the 
monks.  It  was  poor,  since  a  thousand  years  of  de- 
cay from  Phidias,  Apelles  and  JEschylus  could  not 
leave  the  noble  arts  in  any  richness.  But  among 
the  inmates  of  those  old  monasteries  were  germinat- 
ing the  seeds  of  most  modern  art.  The  work  of 
Benedict  Biscop  at  Wearmouth,  when  seeking  a  bet- 
ter stone  building  than  the  workmen  of  England 
could  rear,  he  brought  masons  from  Gaul  to  meet 
his  aspirations,  was  prophecy  of  the  Gothic  mag- 
nificence which  embellishes  the  island,  and  it  looked 
forward  toward  the  genius  of  Sir  Christopher 
Wren.  The  imported  glaziers  of  Benedict  also 
looked  toward  the  matchless  windows  and  scrolls 
and  orioles  made  eight  centuries  ago  that  are  the 
despair  of  modern  glaziers.  The  paintings  he  set 
up  in  his  Wearmouth  monastery  were  the  first  of 
those  that  in  long  course  are  now  enriching  the 
museums,  churches  and  galleries.  One  cannot  look 
upon  the  manuscripts  preserved  in  the  cathedral 
libraries  and  elsewhere,  as  fresh  appearing  as  when 
written,  notice  the  perfection  of  every  letter  in  its 
peculiar  structure  of  those  centuries,  linger  lov- 
ingly upon  the  embellishments  and  the  illuminated 
capitals,  and  see  the  faultlessly  made  vellum,  with- 
out feeling  that  those  old  monks  who  laboriously 

37 


38  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

wrought  them  as  a  work  of  love,  were  superior 
artists. 

Music,  the  helpful  handmaid  of  devotion,  was 
practiced  from  the  start,  the  expanding  work  of  the 
church,  the  building  of  cathedrals,  the  growing 
ornateness  of  the  service,  as  well  as  the  deepening 
culture  of  the  people,  calling  for  still  more  elabo- 
rate music.  For  this  purpose  the  precentors  of 
skilled  musical  powers  brought  from  the  continent, 
taught  chanting  and  choral  measures  in  the  service. 
Benedict  Biscop,  of  refined  soul,  led  in  this  enlarge- 
ment, as  did  the  broad  visioned  Wilfred,  who  had 
music  taught  so  widely  that  the  peasants  of  his 
diocese  mingled  the  Gregorian  chant  with  their 
labors.  The  use  of  bars  to  facilitate  reading  the 
notes  was  first  introduced  by  the  monks.  Their 
old  manuscript  piece  of  music  with  the  heavy  notes 
an  inch  in  length  are  now  curious  things  to  look 
upon.  Great  organs  added  their  profound  intona- 
tions to  the  devotions  of  the  people.  One  erected 
in  the  tenth  century  at  Winchester  had  twelve  bel- 
lows above  and  fourteen  below,  worked  alternately 
by  seventy  strong  men  impelling  each  other  to  put 
forth  their  utmost  strength.  It  had  four  hundred 
pipes,  the  keyboard  being  directed  by  two  friars. 
Its  sound  must  have  been  deafening. 

To  Benedict  and  Wilfred  was  due  the  importa- 
tion of  many  arts  that  have  never  ceased  their 
beneficent  ministries  to  soul  and  body  in  all  the  his- 
tory of  the  race.  Embroidery  of  rich  patterns, 
glass  making  with  colors  of  incomparable  richness, 
gold  work  of  such  beauty  that  it  was  the  envy  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  39 

the  continent  as  far  as  Italy,  and  painting,  though 
of  stiff  figures,  were  a  beginning,  along  with  other 
embryonic  benefits,  full  of  rich  promise  and  help 
to  the  people  emerging  into  the  light  of  civilization. 

The  amount  of  precious  metals  used  shows  not 
only  the  vast  wealth  held  by  the  kings  but  in  the 
lavish  use  of  it  also  an  expression  of  their  religious 
life.  Thus  it  is  said  that  King  Ina  building  a  new 
church  at  Glastonbury  put  into  an  altar  two  hun- 
dred sixty-four  pounds  of  gold  besides  much  into 
the  vessels,  while  the  covers  of  the  gospel  had 
twenty  pounds.  Images  of  the  Lord,  of  Mary  and 
of  the  twelve  apostles,  were  also  of  solid  gold.  Not 
monks  alone  encouraged  art,  but  Alfred  and  others 
as  well  as  Ina  aided  the  culture  and  Christianization 
of  their  people  by  art's  ministries.  Nor  did  the 
converted  Northmen  wholly  disdain  to  seek  the  up- 
lifting influence  of  art,  in  some  instances  seeking 
restitution  of  works  destroyed  by  their  pagan  pred- 
ecessors. 

There  were  certain  ones  among  the  Anglo-Saxons 
as  among  all  warlike  peoples,  who  from  natural  rea- 
sons were  not  adapted  to  war.  Lack  of  brawn  or 
lack  of  spirit  might  be  the  cause.  To  such  the 
priesthood  of  the  new  faith  offered  special  oppor- 
tunities. To  them  the  monasteries  presented  an 
asylum,  where  in  the  peaceful  cloisters  they  often 
became  even  in  the  rough  Anglo-Saxon  period,  most 
influential  members  of  the  race.  Culture  made 
them  into  monks,  abbots,  bishops  and  writers.  It 
is  impossible  to  think  of  the  Venerable  Bede  as  a 
warrior,  but  in  the  Jarrow  cloister  he  wrought  out 


40  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

a  vocation  and  a  name  with  his  pen  that  have  only 
one  compeer  in  that  whole  epoch. 

Besides  ambitious  and  letter-loving  students,  the 
monasteries  attracted  and  gave  shelter  to  the  un- 
fortunate ones  who  were  not  competent  for  the  stern 
life  of  those  times,  or  to  those  who  had  entered  the 
conflicts  and  had  failed  in  them.  In  these  the 
monks  saw  special  wards  of  Heaven,  receiving  them 
and  caring  for  them  to  whom  they  were  called  upon 
to  extend  the  lovingkindness  of  the  Master.  In 
those  times  of  commotion  and  overturning,  many 
helpless  ones,  women  and  children  constantly  de- 
prived of  their  natural  protectors  found  in  the 
monasteries  for  women  and  in  the  monastic  schools 
for  children  safe,  sheltering  arms.  In  these  ways 
and  many  others,  the  monasteries  were  centers  of 
a  charity  that  touched  all  classes,  affording  to  the 
rich  careful  and  reliable  opportunities  for  their 
benefactions,  and  on  the  other  hand  offering  to  the 
indigent  relief  from  biting  poverty  and  premature 
death.  Hexam  became  such  a  sanctuary  for  the 
oppressed,  the  afflicted  and  the  poor,  that  its  asylum 
was  respected  in  the  wars  between  the  little  king- 
doms, and  the  Scots  were  baffled  in  their  attempts 
to  slay  the  people  of  that  community. 

As  if  they  were  determined  to  carry /the  bless- 
ings of  the  new  faith  to  all,  the  missionaries  from 
first  to  last  sought  the  manumission  of  the  slaves. 
They  bought  the  boys  offered  for  sale,  putting  them 
as  pupils  into  their  schools,  and  it  was  not  unknown 
that  some  of  these  unfortunate  ones  arose  to  high 
places  in  ecclesiastical  life.  A  brilliant  example  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  41 

this  was  when  two  hundred  fifty  slaves  coming  into 
the  hands  of  Wilfred  by  a  grant  to  him  of  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  he  freed  them  all  and  taught  them  the 
new  evangel.  The  clergy  were  always  soliciting 
the  freedom  of  slaves  from  persons  repentant  or 
dying.  Such  thralls  as  were  overworked  or  were 
compelled  to  work  on  Sunday  were  by  council  en- 
actment made  free.  The  manumission  was  accom- 
plished before  the  altar  of  a  church,  and  then  the 
action  was  sometimes  written  upon  the  fly  leaf  of 
the  church  Bible.  The  victories  of  the  new  faith 
shown  in  many  ways  among  a  people  so  strenuously 
pagan  but  a  few  years  before,  is  a  marvel  of  history. 
By  the  time  of  the  Domesday  Book  only  twenty- 
five  thousand  slaves  were  reported  in  all  England. 
One  of  the  grandest  boons  to  the  Anglo-Saxons 
brought  by  the  missionaries  was  a  better  social  life. 
The  communities  of  monks,  each  with  scores  or 
hundreds  of  them  living  in  a  brotherhood,  subject 
to  a  superior  whose  rule  was  not  that  of  the  sword 
or  royal  blood  but  that  of  parental  authority  and 
Christian  fraternity,  made  a  most  vivid  object  les- 
son to  the  new  people.  It  stirred  a  chord  in  their 
natures  profounder  than  that  of  the  old  ways. 
The  early  missionaries,  while  associating  with  kings 
and  nobles,  went  also  without  shrinking  into  the 
huts  of  serfs  and  slaves.  The  women  soon  learned 
to  trust  and  respect  the  clerics.  Choice  youths 
full  of  promise  were  taken  by  them  to  their  monas- 
tic schools  from  keeping  cattle  and  swine,  or  from 
other  low  walks  of  life,  such  youths  becoming 
priests  and  teachers  like  their  preceptors.  These 


42  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

things  were  foundation  laying,  but  among  the 
foundations  upon  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has 
built  its  greatness. 

In  time  the  jealousies  between  the  tribal  king- 
doms grew  less  and  did  not  lead  to  so  many  wars 
or  to  such  ruthless  ones.  The  sway  of  one  arch- 
bishop over  all  England  was  suggestive  of  a  bet- 
ter spirit.  As  time  went  on  the  irrepressible  bit- 
terness of  the  native  Britons  toward  their  aggres- 
sors seems  to  have  given  way  and  those  who  like 
Cadwalla  would  before  join  a  pagan  like  Penda  to 
ruin  Northumbria,  now  joined  in  a  fraternal  effort 
to  bring  to  Christ  the  remotest  corners  of  heathen 
territory.  Parents  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
selling  their  children  into  slavery  saw  foreigners 
come  among  them  who  rescued  such  children  from 
thralldom,  educated  them  and  placed  them  in  posi- 
tions of  honor  and  influence.  Feuds,  killings  and 
rapine  were  not  fully  stopped  at  once  but  had 
diminishing  frequency.  Robbery  and  brigandage 
grew  less.  Other  crimes  under  the  rule  of  penance 
for  them  and  in  all  possible  cases,  of  restitution, 
aided  the  movement  toward  better  morals. 

The  position  of  the  wife  was  more  and  more 
elevated.  The  power  of  the  husband  over  her  as 
well  as  over  the  remainder  of  the  household  was 
directed  by  a  milder  spirit.  No  wife  could  be 
lightly  put  away  or  infants  any  more  be  put  to 
death.  Slaves  must  be  treated  leniently,  or  better 
set  at  liberty,  for  slavery  was  an  evil.  The  grim 
fighters  who  had  lived  by  rapine  and  war  were 
taught  that  these  also  were  evils.  Drunkenness  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  43 

gluttony  must  be  atoned  for  by  penance  while  fasts 
must  be  entered  upon  to  teach  them  control  of  their 
passions  and  appetites. 

The  part  that  women  played  in  the  conversion  of 
the  Saxons  and  in  the  consequent  religious  life  forms 
a  most  interesting  passage  in  the  history  of  the 
people.  It  was  Bertha,  the  Gallic  princess,  who 
opened  the  way  for  Gregory  to  send  Augustine  and 
his  company  on  their  first  mission  to  Kent.  Her 
daughter,  Ethelberga,  went  with  similar  results  to 
Northumbria. 

Reading  backward  in  what  was  done  in  later 
times  it  can  be  more  than  guessed  that  women  too 
were  uplifted  by  the  conversion  of  the  kingdoms. 
Certain  it  is  that  they  were  protected  as  never  be- 
fore. Noble  women  began  founding  monasteries 
for  their  sex  which  in  time  became  numerous  and 
influential,  offering  such  high  advantages  of  culture 
and  pious  activities  that  there  was  no  longer  need 
of  going  to  the  Gallic  monasteries  either  for  school- 
ing or  devotion.  Daughters  of  the  kings  became 
abbesses.  Edward  the  Elder  devoted  three  of  his 
daughters  to  the  religious  life.  The  women  devoted 
to  a  monastic  life  went  through  a  neophytic  course 
covering  several  years,  their  last  vows  being  re- 
ceived only  by  a  bishop.  Thus  consecrated  and 
veiled  they  were  called  the  spouses  of  Christ,  for 
having  renounced  all  thought  of  marriage  to  men 
they  were  thought  to  be  indissolubly  wedded  to  the 
Lord.  Owing  to  their  relations  to  the  Most  High 
while  on  earth,  they  were  often  accorded  the  liber- 
ties and  attributes  of  exalted  rank.  Before  their 


44  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

final  vows  they  must  be  of  mature  age,  at  least 
twenty-five,  must  have  the  consent  of  their  parents 
to  the  important  step,  must  promise  obedience  to 
the  bishop,  and  thus  with  prayer  and  benediction 
be  passed  to  the  life  of  the  nun. 

As  among  the  monks  in  their  monasteries,  full 
social  equality  prevailed  among  the  nuns,  for 
though  they  came  from  all  ranks,  royalty,  nobility, 
and  ceorls,  they  were  as  sisters  in  the  cloisters.  It 
sometimes  happened  that  one  whose  rank  before 
taking  the  veil  had  been  low,  served  as  superior  over 
those  whose  social  grade  had  been  high,  although 
most  of  the  abbesses  and  superiors  of  whom  men- 
tion is  made  were  of  noble  blood.  Thus  the  sisters 
of  Cremhild  and  Brunehild  became  the  Hildas  and 
Ebbas  of  the  cloisters. 

The  women  entering  those  monasteries  can  be 
roughly  grouped  under  three  classes.  First,  those 
who  were  dedicated  for  some  special  reason  in  their 
babyhood;  second,  those  who  were  married,  but 
under  the  teaching  of  the  age  sought  greater  holi- 
ness as  recluses,  their  husbands  in  some  cases  being 
willing,  in  others  unwilling  for  them  to  take  such 
a  step ;  third,  widows,  who  after  the  death  of  their 
husbands,  sought  comfort,  safety  and  devotion  in 
those  houses.  It  cannot  be  surprising  in  a 
tumultuous  age  like  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  that 
weak  women  would  freely  use  the  protection  offered 
by  such  foundations,  as  well  as  to  seek  the  quiet 
opportunities  of  deep  devotion.  Queen  Eanfleda, 
the  widow  of  Oswald  of  Northumbria,  found  a 
refuge  after  the  death  of  her  husband  in  the  mon- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  45 

astery  of  Whitby  where  her  own  daughter  was  ab- 
bess, and  under  such  inverted  relations  ended  her 
days  in  peace. 

The  first  monastery  founded  for  women  was  that 
of  Lyminge,  Kent,  built  by  Ethelburga,  the  widow 
of  Edwin.  Her  brother  Eadbald  gave  her  the  land, 
out  of  the  income  of  which  she  built  the  monastery, 
making  it  a  refuge  for  many  widows  like  herself. 

In  Wessex,  at  Winnbourne,  was  a  community  of 
nuns  that  numbered  no  less  than  five  hundred  and 
the  abbess,  Cuthberga,  a  daughter  of  King  Ina, 
sometimes  had  her  hands  full  to  control  such  a  mass 
of  them.  An  under  officer  died  who  had  become 
offensive  to  the  young  members  of  the  monastery, 
and  on  her  new-made  grave  they  danced  until  it 
sunk  half  a  foot  below  the  surface,  for  which  offense 
they  were  punished  with  three  days'  fasting  and 
continued  prayers  for  the  dead  nun.  The  delight- 
ful writer,  Aldhelm,  in  his  metrical  book  on  Virgins, 
praises  the  nuns  for  their  wide  knowledge. 

A  class  of  monasteries  had  arisen  in  Gaul  and 
Ireland  occupied  by  both  men  and  women  but 
usually  presided  over  by  a  woman.  So  successful 
were  these  double  monasteries,  especially  the  one 
at  Chelles,  Gaul,  where  Mildred  and  other  Anglo- 
Saxon  women  had  been  educated,  that  the  island 
kings  desired  similar  ones  among  their  people. 
Soon  a  number  of  them  were  founded,  the  most 
noted,  perhaps,  being  that  of  Whitby,  over  which 
the  saintly  Hilda  presided.  The  opportunities 
offered  women  by  these  various  establishments  called 
many  able  minds  to  the  front. 


46  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Possibly  the  most  distinguished  by  noble  char- 
acter and  high  genius  was  Hilda,  long  time  abbess 
of  Whitby.  She  was  of  royal  Northumbrian  blood 
and  until  she  heard  the  call  at  thirty  years  of  age 
to  the  conventual  life,  was  subjected  to  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  court  life.  For  a  while  she  was  in  charge 
of  a  small  foundation,  and  then  was  transferred  to 
the  larger  one  at  Whitby  on  the  coast,  where  Har- 
tlepool  is  now  situated.  Her  monastery  soon  be- 
came a  double  one,  growing  to  great  size  and 
prominence.  Her  high  powers  of  mind  and  heart 
drew  all  the  prominent  people  of  that  region  to  her, 
royalty,  nobility  and  clergy  seeking  conference  and 
counsel  with  her.  Aidan  was  a  frequent  visitor. 
She  was  as  thoughtful  of  the  lowly  as  of  the  exalted, 
her  keen  insight  and  helpful  spirit  found  out 
Caedmon  and  gave  him  to  the  world  of  letters,  her 
pupils  went  out  as  priests  and  bishops,  while  her 
monastery  was  a  refuge  for  helpless  men  and 
women,  standing  a  moral  lighthouse  as  it  stood  a 
material  one  to  the  storm-tossed  sailors  of  the 
rough  German  Ocean.  Her  ability  for  organiza- 
tion and  governing  was  not  below  that  of  the  An- 
glo-Saxon kings  of  her  age. 

A  woman,  Ethelgiva,  of  royal  birth  and  great 
riches,  went  secretly  to  the  cell  of  Dunstan  and  was 
so  impressed  by  his  sanctity  that  she  determined 
to  live  and  die  near  him  and  the  church.  This  she 
did,  dedicating  her  money  to  God  with  Dunstan  as 
executor,  which  he  used  to  build  the  church  in  that 
place  in  much  more  elegant  form.  Her  course  was 
but  typical  of  a  spirit  that  grew  more  and  more 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  47 

upon  the  Anglo-Saxon  people.  Pilgrimages  took 
the  place  of  duty  to  friends  and  country,  penances 
and  mortifications  paid  the  price  of  distressing  sins, 
vows  were  more  than  oracles  of  God.  Alfred  swore 
the  Danes  upon  relics  when  making  a  treaty  with 
them,  and  Duke  William  bound  Harold  when  in 
Normandy  by  an  oath  above  a  chest  of  saint's 
relics. 

Another  form  their  devotion  took  was  making 
pilgrimages  to  Rome,  and  even  to  Jerusalem.  The 
journey  to  the  continent,  across  Gaul,  over  the 
perilous  Alps,  and  through  Italy,  was  wearisome, 
costly,  and  full  of  danger.  But  multitudes  entered 
upon  it.  An  institution  termed  a  Saxon  school 
was  founded  in  Rome  by  Ina,  King  of  Wessex  when 
on  his  pilgrimage  thither,  which  was  really  an  asy- 
lum for  the  pilgrims  from  England.  Alfred's 
father  and  that  king  himself  aided  it,  as  did  many 
other  royal  benefactors.  When  burned  it  was  re- 
built by  English  money.  Not  only  did  royalty  and 
clergy  go  to  Rome,  but  nobles,  abbesses,  princesses, 
nuns,  and  multitudes  of  the  commons  crowded  the 
roads  across  the  continent  to  do  penance,  even  with 
such  a  rugged  journey,  visit  holy  places  and  pray 
in  them,  and  seek  absolution  from  the  pope.  Some, 
even  abdicating  kings,  made  the  city,  so  full  of 
sacred  places  and  holy  memories,  a  refuge  till  death 
came  to  them.  Cadwalla  of  Wessex,  converted, 
went  to  Rome,  in  688,  to  be  baptized  by  the  pope 
and  soon  died  in  that  holy  city.  On  these  pilgrim- 
ages many  lost  their  lives;  others  were  beset  by 
robbers  and  gave  up  all  they  possessed,  not  a  few 


48  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

died  of  dieases  contracted  in  a  strange  climate  and 
by  exposure,  while  others  were  harried  by  the  Gallic 
rulers  through  whose  petty  domains  they  must  pass. 
Yet  with  these  possible  dangers  to  persons  and 
means  the  stream  of  devotees  was  swollen  for  gen- 
erations. 


CHAPTER  V 

It  seemed  during  these  generations  the  Scripture 
prophecy  was  fulfilled  that  kings  and  queens  should 
be  nursing  fathers  and  mothers  to  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  devoutness  and  abundant  liberality  of 
Ethelbert,  the  first  royal  convert,  were  followed  by 
many  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  royalty.  Rejoicing  in 
the  new  faith  themselves  they  diligently  sought  the 
conversion  of  their  people,  not  only  pouring  out 
their  wealth,  but  often  doing  personal  work  to  this 
end.  Oswald,  acting  as  interpreter  for  Aidan, 
shows  this  spirit.  Aefrid,  another  Northumbrian 
king,  having  been  a  pupil  in  the  monastery  of  lona, 
was  a  most  hearty  patron  of  letters  and  of  the 

urch  as  was  Wilfred.  The  devotion  of  Alfred 
as  deep  and  personal,  and  he  labored  nobly  in  an 
age  of  decadence  to  establish  the  church  institutions. 
He  himself  led,  unconsciously  no  doubt,  in  a  trend 
away  from  ceremonialism  toward  a  simpler  form  of 
vital  piety. 

A  strange  movement,  it  seemr,  now  took  place 
among  the  royal  people  since  numbers  of  them, 
abdicating  their  regal  powers,  sought  salvation  as 
monks  or  as  pilgrims.  The  vicious  wars  that  pre- 
vailed even  after  the  acceptance  of  the  new  faith 
could  readily  join  with  other  distractions  of  the 
epoch  and  drive  men  to  seek  a  quiet  life  in  the  cell. 
Thus  Ceolwulf  of  Northumbria,  after  reigning  a 
number  of  years,  grew  tired  of  his  responsibilities, 

49 


; 


50  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

and  assuming  the  habit  of  a  monk,  passed  the  re- 
maining thirty  years  of  his  life  in  the  monastery 
of  Lindisfarne.  In  a  similar  spirit,  Sebbi  of  the 
East  Saxons,  after  reigning  thirty  years,  assumed 
the  garb  of  the  monk,  and  when  dying  would  per- 
mit only  the  Bishop  of  London  to  be  present,  lest 
in  dying  he  should  show  some  sign  of  suffering  and 
thus  disgrace  his  Woden  blood. 

Some  of  them  imbibed  a  liking  for  letters,  seeking 
in  the  life  of  a  recluse  time  and  quiet  to  pursue  their 
love  of  books.  This  Eadbert,  the  successor  of  the 
monk  Ceolwulf,  did,  for  after  remaining  on  the 
throne  twenty  years,  he  abdicated,  and  retiring 
among  the  books  at  York  which  he  had  helped  to 
collect,  ended  his  days  among  them.  Several  other 
kings  took  similar  courses.  No  less  than  three  of 
the  kings  of  Wessex  did  so.  Centwine,  after  reign- 
ing nine  years,  from  676  to  685,  retired  to  a 
cloister,  and  Cadwalla,  a  pagan  until  he  was  thirty, 
recalling  the  teachings  of  Wilfred  when  the  latter 
was  in  exile,  went  to  Rome  to  be  baptized  and 
shortly  after  died  in  that  city.  Ina,  after  a  reign 
of  thirty-seven  years,  during  which  he  conquered 
Cornwall,  was  persuaded  by  his  wife  to  adopt  the 
monastic  habit,  and  going  to  Rome  accompanied  by 
her  as  a  companion  and  nurse,  died  there,  and  his 
wife  returned  to  Wessex  to  enter  a  monastery. 
The  new  faith,  even  if  but  partially  comprehended, 
was  already  getting  a  mighty  hold  upon  the  race. 
Turketul,  Eadred's  chancellor,  having  thus  served 
under  Athelstan  and  Edmund,  at  length  turned 
monk,  sought  devastated  Croyland,  rebuilt  it, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  51 

secured  a  protecting  charter  from  the  king,  and 
spent  the  last  twenty-seven  years  of  his  life  as  ab- 
bot. 

Among  the  changes  wrought  by  the  conversion 
of  this  people,  those  in  the  matter  of  government 
were  not  the  least,  for  the  missionaries  at  once  took 
a  prominent  place  in  directing  the  kings  and  witans, 
and  while  introducing  new  principles,  retained  most 
of  the  old  laws  and  customs.  The  superior  knowl- 
edge of  the  monks,  the  high  place  they  assumed  in 
the  kingdoms,  added  to  the  new  relations  that 
Christianity  introduced,  caused  them  to  be  greatly 
depended  upon  by  the  people  for  direction  in  the 
large  racial  life.  The  ideal  of  a  state  whose  laws 
were  thoroughly  interblended  with  the  teach- 
ings of  the  gospel  was  more  nearly  reached  in 
those  little  kingdoms  than  has  ever  been  done 
elsewhere  since  Christianity  has  been  offering 
its  beneficent  force  to  humanity.  As  soon  as 
Ethelbert  was  converted  the  laws  began  showing  a 
change;  the  former  laws,  sacred,  unchangeable,  held 
enshrouded  in  mystery,  were  kept  in  memory  by  the 
lawman  but  now,  together  with  the  new  ones,  were 
committed  to  writing  and  thus  lost  their  mystery 
and  for  reason  could  be  changed.  These  were  prob- 
ably the  first  laws  reduced  to  written  form  by  any 
of  the  Germanic  race.  The  king  became  sacred  as 
the  Lord's  anointed,  as  such  obtaining  his  power 
from  the  Deity,  and  was  to  rule  with  justice,  mercy 
and  goodness.  In  the  coronation  oath  he  promised 
to  see  that  the  church  and  Christian  people  pursued 
peace  at  all  times,  that  he  would  forbid  rapacity 


52  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

and  every  form  of  iniquity,  that  in  all  judgment 
he  would  enforce  peace  and  equity.  Far  toward 
the  Conquest  the  king  still  assumed  to  be  God's 
vicegerent  upon  the  earth,  being  delegated  to  keep 
peace  in  his  realm.  The  church  and  state  seldom 
came  into  collision,  but  when  that  did  occur  it  was 
to  find  the  clergy  as  champions  against  the  kings 
for  the  good  of  the  people. 

The  archbishop  and  other  clergy  assumed  a  con- 
stantly increasing  position  in  state  affairs.  The 
bishop  and  other  leaders  were  given  a  place  in  the 
Witenagemot,  the  old  gathering  of  the  wise  men, 
alongside  the  nobility,  and  from  their  superior  learn- 
ing soon  became  most  influential.  Laws  coming  from 
these  gatherings  were  both  secular  and  ecclesiastical, 
and  no  great  distinction  existed  between  them.  The 
bishops  at  certain  epochs,  so  great  were  their  pow- 
ers, could  pronounce  a  land  grant  worthless.  Char- 
ters were  signed  by  the  bishops,  abbots,  abbesses,  and 
others,  as  well  as  by  royalty,  and  the  legal  machinery 
showed  the  legal  presence  of  their  hand.  The  shire 
moot  was  not  complete  without  it  held  the  bishops  as 
well  as  the  ealdormen,  and  the  hundred  was  attended 
by  the  parish  priest.  In  church  councils  kings  and 
princes  took  part,  and  the  legislation  emanating 
from  synods  showed  alike  the  work  of  royalty  and 
clergy.  The  naming  of  archbishop  and  bishop  was 
frequently  done  by  the  king  in  the  Witenagemot. 
The  church  and  state  without  any  formal  action  of 
constitutional  process  were  united.  On  the  death  of 
a  bishop  or  abbot,  the  king  could  direct  men  to  oc- 
cupy their  lands  until  a  new  grant  was  made.  Cases 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  53 

of  administration  were  constantly  arising  relating  to 
the  clergy  and  to  morals  in  which  the  bishops  exer- 
cised high  judicial  powers.  Penitentials,  notably 
those  of  Theodore,  were  an  active  means  of  discipline 
against  immorality  or  drunkenness.  As  time  passed 
the  clergy  were  often  found  in  arms  leading  the  mil- 
itary forces  from  their  estates,  or  even  large  di- 
visions of  the  king's  army  in  defense  of  the  nation, 
and  their  influence  toward  the  latter  part  of  this 
period,  being  about  the  only  permanent  element  of 
the  shifting  society,  operated  largely  in  the  changes 
which  finally  enabled  royalty  in  one  kingdom  to  ob- 
tain the  supremacy  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  Oc- 
tarchy. It  was  not  unknown  that  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  performed  regal  duties,  both  in  govern- 
ing the  realm  of  Kent  and  in  forming  an  alliance  with 
another  ruler.  The  supremacy  of  the  archbishop 
was  far  wider  than  that  of  any  king  till  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  approached  an  end.  England's  great 
statesmen  in  clerical  robes  began  arising,  Dumstan, 
Odo,  the  precursors  of  Pole  and  Wolsey. 

In  the  parishes,  too,  was  to  be  found  the  blending 
of  the  civil  and  spiritual,  as  well  as  in  the  wider  af- 
fairs of  the  state.  Here  the  union  of  church  and 
state  came  in  touch  with  the  common  people  much 
more  than  in  the  higher  walks  of  the  national  life. 
The  village  community  followed  in  the  early  settled 
life  of  the  Teutonic  people,  was  taken  to  England  in 
a  modified  form,  and  the  need  in  such  a  compact  com- 
munity of  a  spiritual  guide,  after  conversion  to 
Christianity,  placed  there  a  monk  at  first,  and  a  secu- 
lar priest,  later,  more  or  less  permanently.  The 


54  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

lord's  manor  with  his  large  company  of  retainers  and 
laborers  also  formed  a  large  body  of  people  calling 
for  the  same  spiritual  oversight,  and  these  two  con- 
ditions made  the  parish  that  peculiar  unit  of  re- 
ligious life.  Theodore,  seeing  the  worth  of  this  ar- 
rangement greatly  helped  forward  the  organization 
of  the  island  into  parishes.  Sometimes  several  town- 
ships were  thrown  into  one  parish  if  each  was  too 
small  to  support  a  priest,  for  to  him  tithes  and  dues 
were  paid. 

A  vast  amount  of  local  legislation  was  done,  the 
parish  and  township  combining  in  their  rights  and 
duties.  Vestrymen's  meetings  attended  to  a  multi- 
tude of  matters  arising  in  the  parish,  and  through 
that  the  church  came  in  its  spirit  of  love  and  wis- 
dom into  close  relations  with  the  common  people.  It 
is  no  wonder  then,  as  time  went  on,  that  the  religious 
life  became  more  powerful  among  the  masses  than 
the  national  or  racial  life.  Thus  with  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  common  man  the  devotion  to  his  parish,  to  his 
priest  and  to  his  pious  duties,  arose  above  those  of 
his  nation  and  he  cared  less  who  was  his  king,  North- 
umbrian, West  Saxon  or  Dane,  than  for  the  immedi- 
ate duties  of  his  religion.  Throughout  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  it  was  a  time  of  transition.  The  tribal 
spirit,  dominant  when  the  tribe  of  the  fierce  warriors 
effected  a  lodgment  upon  the  islands,  slowly  yielded 
to  that  which  gradually  formed  the  Octarchy,  while 
later,  this  was  giving  way  under  the  example  and  in- 
fluence of  a  unified  church  over  all  the  island,  so  that 
the  small  kingdoms  were  disintegrating  to  make  way 
in  turn  for  one  England. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  55 

The  church  was  a  powerful  instrument  in  helping 
toward  this  goal  and  in  forming  a  national  sentiment. 
The  strong  social  feelings  inherent  in  the  race  were 
still  more  broadened  by  the  new  faith,  while  the 
mighty  assertion  of  personal  freedom  always  to  be 
found  in  the  Germanic  people  was  also  fostered  by 
the  spirit  and  way  of  the  church.  Thus  Edgar's 
laws  held  that  any  man,  as  well  poor  as  rich,  was  to 
be  worthy  of  folk-right.  Edgar  himself  would  judge 
righteous  dooms,  that  remission  of  "hot"  should  be 
made  as  might  be  becoming  before  God  and  tolerable 
before  the  world.  His  laws  also  caused  a  thegn 
rendering  unrighteous  judgment  to  forfeit  his 
thegnhood.  Out  of  the  loyalty  to  his  church  and 
the  freedom  it  taught,  the  Englishman  was  to  be 
made  a  patriot.  Free  as  a  Christian,  he  was  becom- 
ing ready  to  insist  on  being  free  as  a  citizen. 

Of  course  only  the  beginnings  of  literary  excel- 
lence could  be  expected  of  a  people  so  recently  led 
out  of  crass  heathenism,  totally  ignorant  of  letters 
and  possessing  no  written  literature.  Still  they  had 
of  old  their  poems,  legends,  and  religious  teachings 
kept  by  their  priests  in  oral  form,  somewhat  as  their 
laws  and  customs  of  civil  processes  were  kept  by  the 
lawmen.  Teachers  and  pupils  were  alike  crude  and 
products  could  not  be  other  than  crude.  The  racial 
genius  began  showing  itself  and  produced  a  few  real 
gems,  prophecy  o-f  future  wealth,  and  since  all  the 
teachers  were  ecclesiastics  and  the  mighty  impulse 
the  people  were  receiving  was  mostly  of  a  religious 
nature,  it  must  follow  that  whatever  of  literary  re- 
sults were  produced  would  be  of  a  religious  nature. 


56  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

The  earliest  gleam  of  literary  genius  arising  in 
those  early  generations  was  that  of  Csedmon.  A 
convert  directly  from  paganism  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventh  century  when  the  church  was  getting 
only  a  fair  start  in  Northumbria,  he  was  attached  to 
Hilda's  monastery  at  Whitby  as  a  keeper  of  farm 
stock.  Under  what  he  deemed  to  be  a  divine  impulse 
revealed  to  him  in  a  dream,  he  began  to  compose 
snatches  of  song  upon  Bible  themes,  and  these,  sub- 
mitted to  the  wise  Hilda,  were  thought  by  her  and 
others  to  be  of  great  merit.  She  had  him  changed 
from  the  stable  to  the  cloister,  and  sections  of  the 
Scripture  being  read  to  the  unlettered  poet,  he  would 
in  due  time  render  them  into  verse.  In  this  way  he 
paraphrased  many  parts  of  the  Scripture.  In  his 
works  there  is  true  poetic  fire,  both  epic  and  lyric, 
and  they  glow  everywhere  with  the  religious  fervor 
likely  to  be  in  a  highly  poetic  soul  led  from  paganism 
to  Christianity.  Through  all  the  productions  of 
both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  Ca?dmon  gives 
noble  expression  to  the  religious  life,  and  must  have 
stood  as  an  exalted  preacher  of  righteousness  to  his 
countrymen  in  his  own  age  and  in  those  following. 
People  committed  to  memory  and  repeated  those 
strong  Scripture  paraphrases  put  into  the  vernacu- 
lar, coming  from  a  stout  Anglo-Saxon  heart,  and 
they  must  have  served  better  purposes  for  the  king- 
dom of  God  than  the  monkish  teachings  of  pious 
legends,  saints'  lives  and  ceremonials. 

One  of  the  old  pagan  poems,  Beowulf,  was  most 
fortunately  preserved,  kept  in  memory,  no  doubt, 
through  many  generations,  to  be  put  into  written 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  57! 

form  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  century  by  some  ad- 
vanced thinker  among  the  Northumbrian  monks.  In 
this  fine  epic  of  more  than  three  thousand  lines  the 
hand  of  the  Christian  transcriber  is  distinctly  seen, 
for  many  references  are  made  to  Christian  facts  and 
teachings,  though  the  body  of  the  poem  is  plainly 
pagan.  It  is  a  wild,  daring  tale  of  war  and  blood- 
shed, of  dragons  and  monsters,  of  loyal  friendships 
and  noble  self-sacrifice.  The  Christian  teachings  are 
slipped  in  here  and  there  as  if  this  salt  must  be 
sprinkled  into  the  pagan  epic  to  preserve  it  in  an  age 
of  other  belief  than  that  in  which  it  was  composed. 
To  have  written  out  the  bold  pagan  poem  might  have 
been  cried  at  as  heresy  in  the  monkish  transcriber. 

In  the  poem  on  the  great  battle  of  Brunanburh,  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  the  sun  is  called  "God's 
candle  bright,"  and  in  the  prose  insertion  of  this  vic- 
tory of  Athelstan  over  Anlaf  leading  a  confederacy 
of  Scots,  Welsh  and  Danes,  it  is  said  he  had  the  vic- 
tory, "Christ  Helping." 

Praise  by  the  historian  must  not  be  stinted  for  the 
venerable  Bede,  who  stands  foremost  of  all  the  great 
men  of  that  epoch.  His  use  of  Latin  in  all  the  works 
preserved  does  not  permit  us  to  know  how  his  great 
soul  and  intellect  could  have  found  expression  in  the 
rugged  Anglo-Saxon.  He  made  a  translation  of 
John's  Gospel  into  the  vernacular,  pathetically  work- 
ing on  it  with  his  amanuensis  till  his  death  day,  but 
that  is  now  lost  as  well  as  all  traces  of  his  other 
Anglo-Saxon  work. 

His  reputation  mainly  rests  upon  his  "Ecclesiastical 
History,"  in  which  he  begins  with  Britain  when  in- 


58  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

vaded  by  Caesar  and  ends  in  731,  near  the  date  of 
his  death.  This  monk,  the  product  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  monastic  life  at  its  best  period,  the  pupil  of 
Benedict  Biscop,  grown  up  in  the  monasteries  of 
Wearmouth  and  Jarrow,  persisting  in  being  a 
teacher  and  a  writer  during  his  whole  life,  exercised 
an  exalted  influence  through  his  "Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory," his  "Life  of  Cuthbert"  and  other  writings  that 
remain  as  a  glorious  monument  to  his  heart  and 
brain. 

A  hundred  years  later  than  Caedmon  and  directly 
after  Bede,  flourished  Cynewulf,  the  most  prolific 
poet  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  epoch,  more  cultured  than 
Caedmon  and  as  good  a  master  of  the  vernacular  as 
he  was.  There  had  been  a  century  of  progress  in 
the  religious  life,  in  the  emergence  from  paganism 
into  the  light  of  Christianity,  and  in  the  culture  of 
the  general  intellect.  The  spirit  of  Cynewulf's  pro- 
ductions is  thoroughly  religious,  his  three  principal 
poems  being  "Christ,"  "Andreas,"  and  "Elene." 
Together  they  form  a  kind  of  Christian  cycle. 
Other  poems  and  fragments  have  been  assigned  to 
him.  In  all  his  writings  Cynewulf  was  devout,  seek- 
ing the  light,  and  his  poems,  like  those  of  Caedmon, 
were  learned  by  the  people  and  promoted  much  re- 
ligious knowledge  among  them. 

Following  this  time  came  the  Danish  irruptions 
and  the  subversion  of  the  seats  of  learning,  and  with 
such  loss,  decay  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life 
which  had  in  Northumbria  and  elsewhere  made  so  fair 
promise  of  great  advancement. 

Alfred  the   Great,   standing  head   and  shoulders 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  59 

above  all  the  other  kings  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period, 
may  be  regarded  also  as  the  supremest  representa- 
tion of  the  religious  life  in  that  epoch  of  whom  we 
have  any  knowledge.  Coming  to  the  throne  of  Wes- 
sex  when  his  own  kingdom  had  been  attacked  by  the 
Danes,  and  the  remainder  of  the  island  terribly  har- 
ried by  them,  when  national  decay  consequent  upon 
these  irruptions  and  other  active  forces  was  threat- 
ening the  material,  social  and  religious  life  of  the 
people,  Alfred  did  so  much  to  stay  this  coming  in 
like  a  flood  that  his  name  has  a  luster  all  its  own. 
In  his  early  life  he  was  attractive,  pious,  and  al- 
though untaught  of  letters  until  he  was  twelve,  the 
story  goes  that  he  then  set  to  work  diligently  to 
learn,  being  impelled  to  it  first  by  the  gift  from  his 
stepmother  Judith  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  poem  on  con- 
dition that  he  or  any  one  of  his  brothers  learn  to 
read  it. 

His  piety  was  the  center  of  his  being.  Out  of  that 
spirit  came  his  patriotism,  his  high  literary  work,  his 
intense  activity,  his  hopefulness  and  his  wise  states- 
manship. That  piety  showed  itself  in  purity  of  life, 
in  habits  of  secret  prayer  in  churches,  at  shrines  and 
other  private  places,  and  he  always  carried  a  small 
book  in  his  bosom  containing  prayers  and  other  helps 
to  his  devotions.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  mere 
routine  of  monkish  devotions,  but  through  prayer 
and  the  Scriptures  pushed  close  to  personal  contact 
with  God,  confident  that  he  would  be  met  by  the  ap- 
proach of  the  Heavenly  Father.  Jn  this  spirit,  ap- 
pealing to  the  Scriptures  and  to  simplicity  of  faith 
and  practice,  he  was  a  reformer,  an  early  one  in  that 


60  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

long  line  that  since  has  made  the  religious  life  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  so  noble  and  progressive. 

Alfred's  writings  and  translations  were  like  his 
personal  life,  radiant  with  the  vivifying  power  of 
truth.  The  nature  of  the  books  he  translated  into 
the  vernacular,  so  that  his  beloved  people  could  have 
the  benefit  of  better  information,  was  such  that  they 
were  eminently  inclined  to  foster  Christianity.  He 
translated  the  "Dialogue  of  Gregory,"  his  "Pastoral 
Book,"  the  "Consolation  of  Philosophy"  by  Boethius, 
the  "General  History  and  Philosophy"  of  Orosius  and 
Bede's  "Ecclesiastical  History,"  all  books  of  religious 
cast.  In  translating  these  he  made  free  renderings, 
greatly  improving  the  originals,  and  the  additions  of 
Alfred  interjected  here  and  there  appeared  like  ap- 
ples of  gold  in  silver  setting.  He  caused  schools  to 
be  established,  for  on  coming  to  the  throne  he  found 
gross  ignorance  everywhere,  even  among  the  clerics 
supposed  to  be  the  conservators  of  learning.  Like 
Charlemagne,  he  set  up  a  court  school  in  which  he 
and  his  family  were  eager  learners,  and  founded  an- 
other school  designed  for  the  nobility  of  his  realm. 
He  found  the  monasteries  burned  and  in  ruins  by  the 
ravages  of  the  Danes,  some  of  which  he  rebuilt.  He 
erected  two  new  ones,  Atholney,  in  remembrance  of 
his  hiding  himself  there  in  the  Somerset  morass,  and 
another  at  Shaftsbury,  for  women,  over  which  he  ap- 
pointed as  abbess  his  daughter,  Ethelgiva.  England, 
from  the  Danish  ravages  was  in  great  danger  of 
again  becoming  pagan.  Wessex  alone  led  by  Alfred, 
was  able  to  confront  the  remorseless  Danes.  When 
they  were  beaten  and  the  frith  of  Wedmore  with 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  61 

Guthrum  was  made,  and  that  great  leader  accepted 
Christianity  with  many  of  his  nobles  and  soldiers, 
promising  to  settle  in  East  Anglia  as  peaceful  tillers 
of  the  soil,  the  plan  formed  by  Alfred  was  a  piece  of 
high  Christian  statesmanship. 

A  hundred  years  after  Alfred  another  prose  writer 
came  into  prominence,  a  priest  and  abbot,  Elfric. 
His  works  are  as  a  broad  rift  through  the  over- 
spreading clouds  of  mental  darkness  and  decay,  let- 
ting in  a  flood  of  sunlight  upon  the  religious  life  of 
his  people  of  Wessex.  His  writings  are  what 
would  be  expected  of  a  churchman  of  that  period, 
works  of  a  religious  nature,  homilies,  saints'  lives, 
and  theological  disquisitions.  Of  praying  he  says, 
"The  sign  of  the  cross  is  our  blessing;  and  to 
the  cross  we  pray;  yet  not  to  the  wood  but  to 
the  Almighty  God  that  was  hanged  upon  it." 
Elfric's  works  were  written  to  be  given  orally  to  the 
people,  to  instruct  them  in  righteousness  and  church 
duties,  and  being  thus  designed,  have,  in  the  vernac- 
ular, a  rhythmic  structure. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Out  of  the  surroundings  of  nature  and  the  re- 
stricted conditions  of  their  previous  life,  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  before  their  conversion  must  have  had,  both 
on  the  continent  and  on  the  island,  coarse  manners 
and  habits  repulsive  to  a  higher  grade  of  social  life. 
A  decided  improvement  can  be  traced  in  the  customs 
of  the  people  as  this  period  progressed  toward  its  close. 
A  kindly  spirit  instead  of  persecution  for  those 
still  pagan  was  practiced,  later  synodic  action  requir- 
ing carefulness  of  spirit  toward  those  unconverted, 
none  being  forced  to  accept  the  new  faith.  Not  one 
king  emulated  Charlemagne  in  his  dealings  with  the 
Old  Saxons.  The  old  drinking  habits,  a  part  of  the 
religious  service  like  those  of  the  Romans,  could 
not  readily  be  hindered,  though  exhortation  of  monks, 
laws  of  witans  and  councils  and  penitentials  of  arch- 
bishops were  directed  against  such  excesses.  Dun- 
stan,  as  a  regulation  of  drinking  habits,  ordered  pegs 
to  be  put  into  the  sides  of  the  drinking  vessels,  mark- 
ing how  much  each  one  might  drink  from  the  common 
cup  as  his  share.  The  Danes  with  still  grosser  habits 
and  with  a  despair  brought  by  their  devastations  in- 
creased the  dissoluteness. 

Keeping  slaves,  whether  captives  of  war  or  those 
of  their  own  people  reduced  by  debt  or  crime,  was 
never  deemed  wrong  till  Christianity  taught  a  better 
spirit.  At  once  the  new  teachers  began  to  ameliorate 

the  condition  of  the  thrall.     Many  of  them  as  well  as 

60 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  63 

of  the  free  would  accept  the  new  cult,  and  by  that  ac- 
ceptance be  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  great  Christian 
brotherhood.  Many  were  manumitted.  Cruelty  to 
slaves  lingered  some  time,  like  other  pagan  practices, 
it  being  said  that  the  mistresses  were  especially  severe 
in  punishing  the  female  slaves.  Clerical  laws  made  it 
impossible  for  a  father  to  sell  a  child  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  latter.  By  the  laws  of  Ina,  Christian  men 
were  not  to  be  sold  into  a  foreign,  heathen  country, 
and  the  good  Bishop  Wulfstan  did  his  best  to  close 
the  port  of  Bristol  against  the  slave  trade  to  Ireland, 
which  had,  respecting  young  women,  some  brutally 
repulsive  aspects. 

The  parish  priests  as  distinct  from  the  monks, 
noble  in  the  views  obtained  of  them,  seemed  to  have 
had  a  beneficent  influence  upon  the  social  life,  since 
living  among  the  people,  learning  their  needs  and 
thoughts,  themselves  married  and  cultivating  the 
glebe,  were  nearer  the  men  and  women  of  the  town- 
ship and  parish  of  the  lord  and  his  dependents  than 
celibate  monks  could  possibly  be.  The  people  met  on 
more  social  occasions,  the  gathering  for  church  serv- 
ices aiding,  no  doubt,  in  this  valuable  amenity. 
Christian  democracy  had  a  growth  but  it  was  slow. 
The  well  born  were  permitted  to  marry  only  the  well 
born,  the  uplift  of  the  lower  orders  by  no  means  being 
rapid  or  universal. 

One  pursuing  the  course  of  English  history  cannot 
but  be  pained  as  he  approaches  the  Norman  French 
conquest  to  see  the  contrast  in  the  life  then  found 
compared  with  the  rich  promise  of  preceding  genera- 
tions. Decay  had  struck  all  the  life,  national,  men- 


64  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

tal,  moral.  The  acute  mind  of  Bede  saw  the  ap- 
proach of  these  national  disasters,  and  in  his  patriot- 
ism did  not  hesitate  to  point  them  out.  Among  the 
notes  of  warning  he  sent  out  was  that  false  monas- 
teries had  sprung  up,  protected  by  charters  from 
taxes,  military  service,  and  by  other  favors  usual  to 
those  houses,  yet  not  possessing  the  real  nature  of 
monasteries,  being  without  monastic  rules,  and  en- 
abling their  inmates  to  live  in  easy,  protected  luxury. 
He  feared  that  such  houses  would  leave  the  nation 
without  thegns  and  warriors  possessing  the  means 
and  spirit  to  defend  the  country  if  attacked  from  the 
outside.  Many  of  these  false  monasteries  were  pre- 
sided over  by  nobles  and  ealdormen  and  by  kings' 
immediate  servants,  who,  though  posing  as  clerics, 
had  families  of  their  own.  Monasteries  for  women 
were  presided  over  by  women  that  were  not  nuns. 
Bede  accused  many  houses,  both  for  men  and  women, 
as  being  marked  by  vanity,  gluttony,  and  inconti- 
nence, a  reproach  to  Christianity,  existing  from  the 
time  of  Aldfrid  and  Wilfred. 

Boniface,  even  from  his  field  of  missionary  work  in 
the  forests  of  Germany,  perceived  the  evils  growing 
up  in  English  monasticism,  and  wrote  biting  letters 
back  to  his  native  country,  accusing  the  bishops  of 
drunkenness,  the  cloisters  of  luxury,  the  monks  of 
assuming  fine  adornments,  leaving  study,  keeping  bad 
company,  and  falling  into  debauchery.  The  councils 
of  Cloveshoe  sought  to  stem  the  flood  and  issued 
strong  words  against  these  things,  forbidding  the 
monks  to  bring  into  their  monasteries  for  diversion 
clowns,  minstrels,  poets,  musicians,  buffooneries.  It 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  65 

was  said,  too,  that  priests  kept  women  unlawfully, 
and  putting  one  away  would  take  another  in  her 
place. 

The  vast  accumulation  of  wealth  in  many  of  the 
monasteries  must  have  been  owing  to  the  luxury  and 
laziness  induced,  the  basis  of  much  of  the  corruption 
creeping  into  them.  With  the  increase  of  wealth 
came  increase  of  covetousness,  the  Danes  not  being 
the  only  spoilers  of  those  institutions.  Sometimes 
the  heirs  of  an  abbot  would  put  in  a  claim  to  the  lands 
administered  by  him,  on  condition  of  supporting  the 
monks  of  the  institution.  Kings  and  nobles  who  had 
made  gifts  to  religious  houses  would  revoke  the  gifts. 
Prelates  would  make  over  to  their  relatives  some  of 
the  lands  committed  to  their  control.  It  was  not  un- 
known that  some  of  the  bishops  bought  their  offices, 
the  immense  emoluments  attached  to  the  bishoprics 
being  a  most  alluring  prize.  But  this  decay  of  the 
religious  life  was  not  peculiar  to  England,  for  in  the 
tenth  century  the  popes  and  all  were  commingling  in 
the  slough  of  vice  and  crime.  One  source  of  the  evil 
was  the  tendency  to  hold  dioceses  in  plurality,  one 
bishop  sometimes  holding  three  or  four  sees  and  using 
the  vast  income  from  them  all.  In  904  the  pope  put 
England  under  an  interdict  because  seven  dioceses 
were  without  bishops,  and  Pligmund  consecrated 
seven  bishops  in  one  day.  Ealdred,  archbishop  of 
York,  before  attaining  that  exalted  seat  held  at  the 
same  time  the  bishoprics  of  Worcester,  Hereford  and 
Sherburne,  yet  was  counted  a  good  prelate.  So 
blended  was  the  church  with  the  state  that  the  decay 
of  the  one  was  the  decay  of  the  other.  The  strong 


66  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

family  of  Alfred  was  touched  with  a  decadence  that 
in  memory  of  that  noble  king  was  most  distressing. 
Weak  kings  totter  across  the  stage  or  are  the  victims 
of  court  intrigue. 

The  Danish  devastations  in  many  respects  dupli- 
cated the  irruption  of  the  Angles,  Saxons  and  Jutes, 
four  centuries  before.  The  evil  they  wrought  could 
not  fail  to  hurry  the  decadence  that  was  setting  in 
from  other  sources.  Like  the  Anglo-Saxons,  on  gain- 
ing control  of  portions  of  England  and  finally  of  all 
the  island,  settling  down  they  became  Christianized. 
Their  hatred  of  Christianity  lends  color  to  the  notion 
that  many  of  them  were  Old  Saxons  who  fled  their 
own  country  when  for  their  conversion  Charlemagne 
used  the  sword  instead  of  the  Bible.  Wherever  they 
trod,  churches,  monasteries,  and  other  Christian 
foundations  were  blotted  out,  libraries  shared  the 
same  fate,  priests  and  monks  by  the  thousands  fell 
under  their  battle  axes,  and  the  nuns  suffered  a  worse 
fate  still.  It  is  said,  however,  that  in  some  instances 
they  spared  parish  churches  which  were  not  in  charge 
of  monks.  Whole  dioceses  were  denuded  of  priests 
and  bishops  alike,  a  venerable  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury not  being  respected  enough  to  save  him  from 
torture  and  a  most  excruciating  death.  Edmund, 
king  of  East  Anglia,  captured  by  them  and  required 
to  renounce  his  Christian  faith,  steadfastly  refused. 
He  was  tied  to  a  tree  and  shot  to  death  by  their 
arrows,  being  in  the  annals  of  the  times  counted  a 
martyr,  the  St.  Sebastian  of  England. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  bishops,  forsaking 
crosier,  snatched  up  the  sword  and  led  their  own  ten- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  67 

ants  and  sometimes  divisions  of  the  royal  army 
against  these  scourges.  A  litany,  "Deliver  us,  O 
Lord,  from  the  frenzy  of  the  Northmen,"  was  wrung 
from  the  heart  of  the  people.  Great  cities  like  Lon- 
don, York  and  Winchester  were  not  spared  from 
plunder,  fire  and  the  sword.  So  great  was  the 
slaughter  that  whole  dynastic  families  were  blotted 
out ;  two  rival  kings  in  York,  uniting  against  the  com- 
mon foe,  were  killed  the  same  day.  The  destruction 
by  these  Danes  stood  close  beside  that  of  Attila. 
The  country  north  and  east  was  overrun,  devasta-1 
tions  everywhere  marking  their  steps,  the  west  was 
attacked  from  Ireland  and  only  Wessex  with  its 
mighty  Alfred  withstood  the  destruction.  Gradually 
the  Danes  accepted  Christianity  and  when  the  great 
representative  of  the  Danes,  the  wise  Canute,  came 
to  the  throne  of  all  England,  it  was  to  rule,  not  as  a 
pagan,  but  as  an  enlightened  Christian  prince.  Odo, 
a  Dane,  had  already  been  archbishop  of  York.  Their 
acceptance  of  the  new  faith  had  vastly  to  do  in  estab- 
lishing the  right  social  relations  with  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  in  making  the  Dane  into  an  Englishman. 
When  Athelstan  was  king,  he  aided  Haco  The  Good 
to  the  throne  of  Norway,  and  English  missionaries, 
protected  by  Haco,  brought  the  gospel  into  that  dis- 
tant kingdom. 

But  this  painful  decadence  of  church  and  national 
life  was  not  left  to  go  on  without  efforts,  by  ecclesi- 
astics as  well  as  kings,  to  stay  it.  Dunstan,  a  gen- 
eration away  from  Alfred,  clasped  hands  with  him 
across  that  space  in  a  reformed  spirit.  As  the  Danes 
forsook  the  smoldering  ruins  of  Glastonbury  a  few 


68  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

monks  and  school  boys  returned  to  renew  as  best  they 
could  the  old  associations,  and  among  those  school 
boys  was  Dunstan,  of  a  noble  Wessex  family.  Later 
the  death  of  Odo  placed  Dunstan  in  the  vacant 
bishopric  of  Canterbury,  by  this  office  the  primate  be- 
coming the  first  counselor  of  the  young  king  Edgar, 
who  was  as  much  a  churchman,  or  more,  than  the 
primate,  and  the  conduct  of  affairs  in  Wessex,  where 
both  had  most  power,  was  ennobled  by  the  devoutness 
of  both.  The  king  is  said  to  have  founded  no  less 
than  forty-seven  monasteries,  deeming  them  the  very 
core  of  the  Christian  life,  and  besides  these  he  caused 
several  of  the  old  ones  destroyed  by  the  Danes  to  be 
rebuilt.  During  his  reign  those  foreign  marauders 
mostly  ceased  their  incursions.  England,  like  the 
continent,  was  greatly  stirred  by  the  general  impres- 
sion that  time  was  to  end  with  1000  A.  D.,  the  efforts 
at  reform  by  Dunstan  being  greatly  strengthened 
by  this  thought. 

It  was  at  this  epoch  that  the  first  of  those  great 
revivals  of  monasticism  occurring  in  the  Middle  Ages 
came  to  England.  It  was  brought  forward  by  the 
Cluniacs  being  introduced  from  Fleury,  France.  On 
the  continent  as  in  England  the  monastic  life  had 
sadly  forsaken  its  first  spirit  and  the  reform  of  it 
having  begun  at  Cluny,  it  spread  over  all  western 
Europe,  till  two  thousand  congregations  and  monks 
by  the  ten  thousand  accepted  the  reform.  Under  this 
fresh  impulse  all  the  institutions  were  to  be  opened 
always  to  the  poor,  the  needy,  and  travelers,  and 
the  old  Benedictine  rule  of  study  was  enforced. 
These  Cluniacs  opposed  the  severity  shown  by  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  69 

monks,  or  regulars,  toward  the  secular  clergy,  those 
conducting  the  parishes. 

In  time  Cluny,  the  head  of  the  movement,  grew 
rich,  had  renowned  schools  and  widespread  influence, 
but  itself  grew  corrupt  and  by  that  decadence  called 
for  the  Mendicant  Friars.  From  England  men  were 
sent  to  Fleury  to  study  the  new  movement,  and  if 
deemed  best,  were  to  bring  back  its  rules,  and  possibly 
also  its  spirit.  Having  been  reported  favorably,  the 
reform  began  taking  root  in  England,  King  Edgar 
and  Dunstan  being  prominent  in  using  its  forces.  Its 
intellectual  forces  gave  Elfric  to  England  and  the 
Chronicles  received  new  vigor  and  precision. 

When  in  1014?  Canute,  the  great  Danish  leader, 
came  to  the  throne,  that  people  had  finally  succeeded 
in  their  object  through  generations  of  warfare, 
this  greatest  representative  of  them,  having  like 
King  David  executed  the  murderers  of  his  royal  op- 
ponent, displayed  justice  and  great  wisdom  in  his 
ruling.  To  make  his  throne  secure  in  the  sentiments 
of  the  English  he  married  Emma,  the  mother  of  the 
murdered  Eadmund,  rebuilt  many  of  the  monasteries 
destroyed  by  the  Danes  and  on  every  battlefield  of  the 
conflict  between  the  two  peoples  had  a  chapel  built 
that  prayers  might  be  continually  offered  for  the 
souls  of  the  slain. 

Canute  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  soon  after 
his  accession,  praying  for  himself  and  for  his  king- 
dom, conferring  gifts  upon  religious  houses  there  in 
which  he  passed  hours  of  devotion,  and  also  obtained 
many  favors  from  the  pope.  One  of  these  was  no 
longer  to  require  going  to  Rome  for  the  pallium  of 


70  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  archbishop,  since  corruption  attended  that  cere- 
mony, and  another  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  schools  in 
Rome  should  be  freed  from  taxation.  On  his  return 
Canute  sent  a  letter  ahead  of  himself  to  his  people 
that  breathes  a  most  remarkable  Christian  spirit 
from  one  so  recently  pagan,  and  so  young,  since  he 
was  not  much  above  thirty  years  of  age.  The 
church  of  that  period  owed  a  vast  obligation  to  the 
vigorous,  pious  Dane. 

During  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  period  the  people 
found  it  difficult  wholly  to  escape  from  a  superstitious 
spirit,  since  so  much  of  it  held  sway  under  the  old 
cult.  Through  it  all  can  be  seen  in  many  ways  that  a 
noble  spirit  was  increasing,  even  laying  kings,  nobles, 
and  prelates  under  its  gentle  power.  Thus  Athel- 
stan,  the  grandson  of  Alfred,  commanded  that  gov- 
ernors of  towns  belonging  to  the  crown  should  main- 
tain a  poor  man  in  food  and  clothing,  also  free  a  slave 
yearly.  Buying  or  selling  on  Sunday  was  forbidden, 
the  day  to  begin  at  three  o'clock  Saturday,  and 
end  at  daylight  on  Monday  morning.  Bishops  and 
judges  were  to  promote  justice,  regulate  weights  and 
measures,  protect  the  poor  and  the  slaves.  At  a 
convention  under  Edgar,  967,  it  was  ordered  that  if  a 
person  refused  to  pay  tithes  the  bishop,  or  king's 
officer,  or  sheriff,  was  to  meet  with  the  priest  of  the 
parish  and  a  division  of  the  man's  property  was  to  be 
made  by  force,  the  priest  to  have  a  tenth,  the  ninth 
to  be  given  to  the  recusant,  the  other  eight  parts  to 
be  equally  divided  between  the  bishop  and  the  king's 
officer  or  the  lord  of  the  manor.  The  clergy  were  re- 
quired to  be  constant  in  their  devotions,  especially 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


71 


that  the  people  might  be  loyal  and  dutiful  to  their 
governors  and  princes.  Every  priest  was  to  learn 
some  industry,  so  as  to  guard  against  poverty.  All 
people  were  to  teach  the  Christian  faith  to  their  chil- 
dren, the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  else  they  were 
not  to  come  to  the  eucharist  or  be  buried  in  conse- 
crated ground.  Intemperance  or  riot  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  church,  or  at  any  solemnity  was  to  be  pun- 
ished. Instead  of  hunting  or  hawking,  the  canons 
and  priests  were  to  make  books. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  daily  church  service  at  the  time  of  Odo  and 
Dunstan  was  something  elaborate.  Besides  the  reg- 
ular liturgy  of  Rome  the  Anglo-Saxon  church 
adopted  for  itself  a  breviary  consisting  of  the  Psalms 
of  David,  the  prophets  and  other  sections  of  Scrip- 
ture, quotations  from  the  Fathers,  prayers,  and  the 
story  of  the  martyrs.  Each  day  was  divided  into 
seven  hours,  at  which  the  clergy,  since  they  were  set 
apart  for  that  purpose,  were  summoned  to  the  church 
to  sing  and  conduct  the  service  in  behalf  of  the  great 
body  of  Christians.  The  hours  were  four  o'clock 
and  six,  nine  and  twelve,  then  in  the  afternoon  at 
three,  vespers,  and  nocturnes  at  seven  in  the  evening. 
In  order  that  the  people  might  know  what  they  were 
using,  the  priests  were  to  teach  them  the  Creed  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  With  the  Scriptures  were  mixed 
legends  of  Elijah,  Adam  and  Eve,  and  other  of  his 
chosen  ones  brought  from  Hades  by  Christ.  The 
resurrection  was  argued  from  the  story  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers.  The  people  were  to  observe  the  fasts, 
saints'  days,  and  to  abstain  from  eating  blood. 

We  are  also  let  into  a  glimpse  of  the  personal  life 
of  an  individual  in  reference  to  the  church.  A  babe 
was  to  be  baptized  within  thirty  days  of  its  birth,  re- 
generated they  supposed  by  the  water  of  baptism, 
some  one  standing  sponsor.  As  the  child  grew  up  it 
was  admitted  to  the  eucharist,  and  if  sinning  penance 

was  imposed.     These  three  great  sacraments:  bap- 

72 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  73 

tism,  eucharist,  and  penance,  were  the  means  by  which 
the  souls  of  men  were  purified  from  sin.  While  yet 
young  the  person  must  receive  the  imposition  of  the 
bishop's  hands,  by  this  obtaining  the  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  fortitude  to  withstand  spiritual  enemies.  When 
he  married  that  event  was  to  be  made  sacred  by 
priestly  ceremonies ;  then  as  death  approached,  re- 
ceiving extreme  unction  and  holy  oil  and  the  euchar- 
ist, he  was  assured  that  he  could  hopefully  and  peace- 
fully await  the  last  hour.  In  time  they  came  to 
regard  the  eucharist  as  the  highest  service  of  their 
religious  life,  as  the  highest  to  the  glory  of  God. 
They  called  it  the  celestial  sacrifice,  the  sacred  mys- 
teries, the  renovation  of  the  passion  and  death  of 
Christ.  Of  all  the  means  to  appease  the  wrath  of 
God,  they  thought  this  had  the  greatest  efficacy. 
Communion  seasons  were  frequent  in  addition  to  the 
great  festivals  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsun- 
tide. 

From  the  beginning  of  their  conversion  by  Augus- 
tine through  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  period  the 
people  went  to  confession,  submitting  to  any  penance 
laid  upon  them.  At  the  time  of  confession  the  con- 
fessor was  to  make  careful  inquiry  into  the  circum- 
stances of  the  misbehavior.  The  penitent  in  making 
confession  was  to  repeat  the  Creed,  evince  contrition 
and  humiliation,  be  explicit  in  telling  his  faults,  his 
feelings  respecting  covetousness,  envy,  distraction, 
lying,  vanity,  spite,  profaneness,  keeping  unlawful  se- 
crets, whether  he  had  been  the  tempter  and  taught  the 
methods  of  vice  to  others.  To  the  confessor  and  to 
God  the  penitent  made  his  confession,  praying  to 


74  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Christ  for  pardon  and  begging  the  priest  to  bear  wit- 
ness at  the  Judgment  of  his  sincerity.  Then  on  Ash 
Wednesday  the  penitent  was  to  repair  to  the  cathe- 
dral, when  the  bishop  would  name  the  penance,  if  it 
had  not  already  been  laid  upon  him.  If  the  crime 
was  heinous,  the  culprit  was  debarred  entrance  to  the 
church,  if  he  was  submissive  and  well  behaved  he  could 
appear  on  a  Monday  or  Thursday  publicly  before  the 
bishop  and  be  absolved  by  him. 

But  in  process  of  time  so  many  exceptions  to  the 
literal  fulfillment  of  penance  were  allowed  that  it  must 
have  ceased  to  reach  the  original  object.  The  con- 
ditions began  to  be  modified,  possibly  because  the  peo- 
ple, more  enlightened  by  Scripture  and  general  ad- 
vance of  knowledge,  were  restless  under  them  and  so 
the  clergy  yielded  to  compromise.  Thus,  those  re- 
stricted to  bread  and  water  were  allowed  to  have  some 
green  herbs  with  them.  Commutation  in  distinct 
form  was  finally  allowed  one.  If  near  death's  door, 
or  if  he  found  his  constitution  too  weak  for  such 
austerities  he  might,  instead,  give  a  certain  sum  to 
the  poor  or  redeem  captives  or  say  over  the  Pater 
Noster  or  Miserere.  "He  might,"  says  Turner,  "re- 
pair churches,  make  folk  ways,  with  bridges  over 
deep  waters  and  over  miry  places ;  and  let  him  help 
poor  men's  children  and  step-children  and  widows. 
He  may  free  his  own  slaves,  and  redeem  the  liberty  of 
those  of  other  masters."  A  penny  a  day  was  some- 
times required  of  those  able  to  pay,  and  of  the  poor 
fifty  Paternosters  and  of  the  educated  fifty  psalms. 
Another  form  of  escape  was  the  permission  given  to  a 
great  man  to  get  others  to  fast  with  him,  their  days 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


75 


counting  as  his  but  in  no  case  could  his  fast  be  less 
than  three  days  and  on  the  fourth  day  he  must  wash 
the  feet  of  the  poor.  Another  way  was  to  secure 
some  monks  or  a  hermit  to  assume  the  required  fast- 
ing and  prayers,  to  be  well  paid  for  his  penitential 
assistance.  The  famous  Council  of  Cloveshoe  ar- 
dently attacked  the  system  of  commutation  and  it  is 
claimed  with  questioning  that  it  did  not  persist  after 
the  time  of  Eadgar  and  Dunstan. 

One  of  the  customs  brought  to  England  by  the  mis- 
sionaries and  one  which  exerted  a  wide  influence  was 
that  of  praying  for  the  dead.  It  was  supposed  that 
those  not  hopelessly  wicked  whose  souls  needed  more 
purifying  and  refining  action  could  be  helped  after 
death  toward  eternal  bliss  by  the  prayers  of  friends 
in  this  world.  Hence  a  custom  prevalent  and  intense 
was  fostered  through  all  the  centuries  of  that  period. 
One  constant  duty  of  the  monks  was  to  pray  for  the 
repose  of  the  soul  of  the  one  founding  their  monas- 
tery, or  for  that  of  some  kind  patron  giving  further 
endowment,  or  still  for  such  as  were  paid  for  doing 
this  act.  The  fear  of  purgatory  became  a  very  real 
one  to  those  whose  ancestors  firmly  believed  most  viv- 
idly in  Valhalla ;  to  be  helped  out  of  the  purifying 
fires  of  such  a  purgation  was  worthy  of  great  gifts 
of  land  or  of  money.  Guilds  were  formed  with  many 
objects  but  in  them  all  was  the  one  important  regula- 
tion that  they  should  pray  for  the  soul  of  the  dead 
member,  or  pay  monks  for  such  intercession. 

When  one  was  deathly  sick  the  priest  summoned 
was  bound  to  go  and,  attended  by  his  inferior  clergy, 
exhort  the  dying  man  first  to  pay  his  debts  and  in- 


76  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

demnify  any  he  had  injured.  Extreme  unction  fol- 
lowed, with  the  sign  of  the  cross  laid  upon  different 
parts  of  the  body,  and  the  use  of  consecrated  oil,  ac- 
companied with  appropriate  prayers.  Then  the  sick 
one  received  the  eucharist,  when  the  priest  and  others 
gave  the  kiss  of  peace  and  left  him  assured  of  a  suc- 
cessful journey  to  heaven.  The  custom  of  burying 
the  bodies  of  prominent  saints  and  renowned  church- 
men in  religious  houses  first  occurred  with  the  body 
of  Theodore.  Cuthbert  expressed  a  wish  that  his 
body  might  be  buried  within  the  walls  of  the  diocesan 
cathedral;  hence  arose  the  custom  of  burying  the 
prelates  in  such  sacred  places. 

Like  prayers  for  the  dead,  prayers  to  the  saints 
was  an  imported  custom,  yet  while  much  practiced  did 
not  supersede  direct  and  devout  prayers  to  God.  To 
the  saints  they  ascribed  power  over  nature,  disease, 
and  human  life.  At  the  first  they  had  to  import 
saints  and  relics  but  in  time  so  many  Anglo-Saxons 
attained  sainthood  that  churches  were  dedicated  to 
them,  the  epithet,  "Island  of  Saints"  being  applied  to 
England. 

The  clergy  having  its  system  of  culture  were  re- 
quired to  meet  the  bishop  twice  a  year  in  synod, 
where  they  were  allowed  the  privilege  of  debate.  Be- 
sides these  diocesan  synods,  national  councils  were 
called,  sometimes  by  the  pope  or  the  archbishop,  or 
one  might  be  ordered  by  a  preceding  council.  The 
objects  of  such  national  gatherings  were  to  watch 
over  the  purity  of  the  faith,  the  enforcement  of  dis- 
cipline, to  show  bishops  and  priests  their  respective 
duties,  reform  abuses,  and  regulate  public  worship. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  77 

It  is  certain  that  they  had  a  quiet  but  deep  trending 
toward  national  unity,  for  clerics  from  all  of  the 
kingdoms  whose  influence  was  potent  from  the  land- 
ing of  Augustine  and  his  party  were  represented  in 
them.  A  period  in  church  influence  for  national 
unity  was  reached  when  Eadred,  selected  by  the  first 
Witenagemot  in  which  English  nobles  and  bishops, 
British  under  kings  and  Danish  jarls  sat  and  voted 
together,  was  crowned  in  946,  the  mutual  act  of  the 
two  primates  of  Canterbury  and  York. 

Allied  to  these  active  forces  for  peace  and  safety 
was  the  peculiar  movement  called  "The  Truce  of 
God."  Starting  in  southern  France  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury as  a  religious  excitement,  it  became  prominent 
in  England  before  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
By  its  provisions  no  one  was  to  attack  or  molest  an- 
other from  Thursday  evening  to  Monday  morning  of 
each  week.  These  days  were  set  aside  because 
Thursday  was  specially  sacred  as  the  day  of  Christ's 
ascension,  Friday  the  day  of  his  Passion,  Saturday 
as  the  day  he  rested  in  the  grave,  Sunday  as  the  day 
of  his  resurrection.  In  its  later  stages  the  Truce 
covered  important  fasts,  feasts  and  holy  occasions, 
these,  with  three  days  every  week,  making  a  large 
share  of  the  year  when  no  sword  could  be  unsheathed 
or  battle  ax  unslung.  Staying  the  red  hand  of  war 
and  of  private  vengeance  so  much  gave  the  people  a 
respite  from  danger,  time  for  angry  passion  to  cool 
and  opportunity  for  threatened  ones  to  seek  security. 
In  England  this  movement  found  expression  in  the 
laws  of  Edward  by  which  from  Advent  to  Octaves  of 
Epiphany  all  lawsuits  and  prosecutions  were  to 


78  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

cease.  The  same  cessation  was  required  from  Septu- 
agesima  to  Octaves  of  Whitsuntide,  all  three  days  in 
Ember  week,  on  all  Sundays  from  three  o'clock  Sat- 
urday afternoon  over  Sunday  to  dawn  of  Monday 
upon  vigils  of  the  Virgin,  St.  Michael's  Day  and  that 
of  John  the  Baptist,  all  Apostles'  and  other  saints' 
days  of  which  notice  was  given  by  the  priest  on  Sun- 
day. The  same  freedom  from  arrest  or  disturbance 
was  enacted  for  the  anniversary  of  the  church  be- 
longing to  any  parish,  or  holy  day  of  any  saint  par- 
ticularly related  to  that  parish.  Under  the  same 
favor  was  a  person  on  a  pilgrimage,  to  or  from  a 
church  to  say  his  prayers,  to  a  synod,  or  to  the  con- 
secration of  a  church  or  to  a  consistory  or  going  to 
a  bishop  to  be  released  from  excommunication.  One 
fleeing  to  a  churchyard  or  to  a  priest's  house  could 
be  troubled  only  by  a  bishop  or  a  priest,  the  power 
of  sanctuary  being  extended  thus  from  the  altar  to 
the  church  land.  So  carefully  was  the  hand  of  the 
church  made  to  cover  the  unprotected  as  a  shield. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  phase  of  this  study  to 
note  the  change  being  made  from  the  rough,  brutal, 
bloodthirsty  nature  shown  at  the  first  by  the  follow- 
ers of  Hengist  and  Horsa  to  the  milder,  gentler 
spirit  being  manifested  by  those  who  had  accepted 
Christianity.  When  the  ecclesiastical  questions  over 
the  different  times  of  holding  Easter  were  settled  be- 
tween the  Celtic  and  Roman  sections  of  the  church, 
a  gradual  elimination  of  rancor  took  place  between 
the  two  races  and  by  the  end  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period  had  entirely  disappeared,  a  union  in  religious 
matters  being  complete  by  the  time  of  the  Conquest. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


79 


In  the  later  wars  with  the  Welsh,  remnants  of  the 
native  British  driven  to  the  west  of  the  island,  the 
Anglo-Saxons  no  longer  waged  wars  of  extermination 
like  those  of  the  pagan  period.  If  the  Anglo-Saxon 
supremacy  was  acknowledged  and  heeded  then  peace 
was  allowed.  Saxon  and  Welsh  alike  being  Chris- 
tians, that  bond  became  stronger  than  race  hatred. 
Sentences  for  violated  law  were  made  more  humane, 
holy  days  forced  periods  of  peace,  strife  was  being 
appeased.  By  the  laws  of  Ethelred  fraudulent  deeds 
were  to  be  cast  out  of  the  country,  also  injustice, 
hateful  illegalities,  false  weights  and  measures,  lying 
witnesses  and  shameful  fightings.  He  also  put  un- 
der condemnation  horrid  perjuries,  diabolical  deeds 
in  "morth"  works  and  in  homicide,  as  well  as  drunk- 
enness, gluttony  and  sacrilege.  He  also  declared 
that  as  all  had  one  Father,  God,  and  one  mother,  the 
church,  all  were  brothers.  When  such  men  as  the 
stern  Anglo-Saxons  and  cruel  Danes  could  consent  to 
these  milder  ways,  enact  and  observe  such  laws  and 
dooms  it  can  be  seen  that  a  marked  mitigation  of 
fierceness  was  going  on.  Those  grim  warriors  whose 
joy  had  been  the  drunken  feast  and  the  deadly  hand 
play  of  the  sword,  often  entered  voluntarily  upon  a 
life  of  abstention  and  study,  of  prayer  and  vigil. 
The  changes  among  the  common  people  though  un- 
recorded were  unquestionably  going  on.  Brutal 
sports  and  amusements  of  cruelty,  unnatural  crimes 
and  shocking  barbarities,  were  growing  less  and  less. 
The  spirit  of  Christ  was  shown  to  be  better  than  that 
of  Woden,  their  old  war  god.  The  Jews  under  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor  were  taken  into  the  protection  of 


80  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  crown,  and  when  it  is  remembered  how  this  de- 
spised race  had  been  harried,  robbed,  and  driven 
from  one  country  and  another,  such  kindly  protec- 
tion gleams  as  a  shaft  of  light  in  the  darkness  of  their 
misfortunes. 

The  papacy  in  most  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period 
had  but  light  direction  of  affairs  upon  the  island. 
The  popes  usually  let  England  alone.  Still  they 
wisely  directed  initial  steps  for  evangelizing  parts 
of  the  land.  The  papacy  claimed  the  right  to  direct 
affairs  on  occasion,  as  was  shown  in  the  selection  and 
appointment  of  Theodore  as  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. The  unhappy  disputes  taking  place  between 
Wilfred  and  those  about  him,  leading  to  the  appeal 
to  the  pope,  opened  the  way  for  papal  interference 
that  was  illy  brooked  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  authorities, 
civil  or  ecclesiastical.  They  sometimes  flatly  re- 
fused to  abide  the  decisions  of  the  pope,  suggesting 
that  they  could  attend  to  their  own  matters. 

Through  a  curious  money  transaction,  that  of 
Peter's  Pence,  the  papal  grip  upon  England  was 
greatly  aided.  This  money  at  first  seems  to  have 
been  a  grant  from  England  of  means  to  sustain  the 
Saxon  school  founded  at  Rome  by  Ina,  King  of  Wes- 
sex.  Offa  of  Mercia,  in  gratitude  for  aid  deemed  to 
have  been  given  him  by  St.  Peter  in  a  war,  confirmed 
the  grant,  extending  the  territory  of  its  collection, 
and  Ethelwulf  as  overlord  of  all  England  still 
further  extended  the  country  laid  under  obligation. 
In  time  the  confirmation  of  the  grants  by  the  kings 
brought  it  to  the  definite  sum  of  a  silver  penny  from 
each  family  or  hearth  of  the  kingdom,  being  usually 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


81 


collected  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  and  sent  to 
Rome.  Being  due  every  year  on  the  date  of  Peter's 
mass  it  was  called  Peter's  Pence.  The  popes  needed 
the  money  and  it  also  expressed  a  certain  obligation 
of  the  land  and  its  people,  royal,  cleric  and  laity,  to 
the  papal  see.  Protestors  there  were  all  along,  as 
evidenced  by  the  dooms  upon  recusants,  but  on  the 
other  hand  most  of  the  Christians  would  be  glad  to 
pay  that  small  sum  each  year  to  aid  the  great  central 
figure  of  their  faith. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

By  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  matters 
leading  to  the  Norman  Conquest  began  to  take  def- 
inite form.  Little  thought  was  there  of  the  momen- 
tous results  that  through  the  centuries  would  follow 
when  in  1002  Ethelred  took  in  marriage  Emma,  the 
daughter  of  Richard  the  Good,  Duke  of  Normandy. 
Those  Northmen,  settling  in  France,  had  become 
thoroughly  Christianized.  By  a  race  of  great  rulers 
peace  and  prosperity  had  been  secured  and  their  in- 
fluence upon  England  was  to  be  increasingly  impor- 
tant to  the  Conquest  sixty  years  forward.  By  his 
marriage  with  the  Norman  princess,  Ethelred  kept 
the  Danes  from  finding  refuge  in  the  harbors  of  Nor- 
mandy or  aid  from  its  men  at  arms.  But  it  did  not 
save  the  king  from  defeat  by  the  Danes  under  the 
able  leadership  of  Swein,  after  which  the  whole  royal 
family  fled  oversea  to  the  court  of  Richard.  Still 
Ethelred  and  his  brave  son,  Edmund  Ironside,  made 
attempts  on  the  soil  of  England  to  retrieve  these  re- 
verses, and  Eadmund,  after  the  death  of  Ethelred, 
so  far  succeeded  that  the  country  was  divided  as  in 
the  day  of  the  great  Alfred  between  English  king  and 
Danish  king  along  the  Thames  and  Watling  Street 
when  death  came  to  Eadmund  and  the  Danish  king 
Canute  was  acknowledged  sole  ruler  of  the  realm. 

After  his  marriage  with  Emma,  Ethelred's  widow, 
Canute  called  together  the  Witenagemot  and  ob- 
tained their  election  of  him  to  the  throne.  He 

82 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  83 

trusted  the  English  to  such  an  extent  that  he  sent  his 
own  troops  back  to  Norway  save  a  compact  body  of 
them,  the  Nuscarls,  which  served  as  a  body-guard 
and  declared  the  laws  of  Edgar  those  of  the  land. 
Canute's  relations  to  Christianity  became  those  of 
deference,  thoughtfulness  and  devotion.  Out  of  the 
anarchy  following  Canute's  death  and  that  of  his  un- 
worthy sons  came  a  cry  from  the  people  and  a  quick 
vote  of  the  Witenagemot  for  a  ruler  of  their  own 
blood,  Edward,  the  son  of  Ethelred  and  Emma.  The 
thirty  years  of  his  life  had  been  spent  in  Normandy, 
where  he  had  fully  learned  the  ways  and  speech  of 
the  land,  and  had  so  inclined  him  to  piety  and  the 
monastic  life  that  he  was  afterward  known  as  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor.  Soon  after  his  accession  he 
married  Eadgyth,  the  daughter  of  the  great  earl  of 
Wessex,  Godwine,  who  by  his  marriage  and  by  plac- 
ing large  sections  of  England  in  the  hands  of  his 
sons  and  other  relatives  was  aiming  to  win  the  throne 
on  Edward's  death  for  his  own  family. 

Norman  favorites  in  the  train  of  Edward  began 
to  find  lucrative  places,  one,  Robert  of  Jumieges,  be- 
ing made  bishop  of  London,  and  Ulf,  another  of  Ed- 
ward's religious  followers,  being  given  the  great  see 
of  Dorchester.  The  see  of  Canterbury  becoming 
vacant  the  Norman  party  and  the  English  wanted  to 
fill  it,  but  Edward  raised  Robert  of  London  to  it  and 
civil  war  became  imminent.  Robert  was  the  creature 
of  Edward,  as  Aelfric,  the  candidate  of  the  native 
party,  would  have  been  the  creature  of  Godwine  had 
it  been  given  to  him.  An  army  summoned  by  God- 
wine  stood  on  one  side  of  the  Thames  and  that  of 


84  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Edward  on  the  other  but  the  national  spirit  was  so 
developed  through  the  church  and  other  means  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Witan  deemed  it  unwise  to  fight. 
Godwine  and  his  family  being  outlawed,  fled,  part  to 
Flanders,  part  to  Ireland.  The  Bishop  of  London, 
Spearhafoc,  partisan  of  Godwine,  was  superseded  by 
the  chaplain  of  Edward,  a  Norman,  and  the  wife  of 
Edward  was  dismissed  to  a  nunnery.  No  harsher 
measures  than  these  against  the  great  earl  comported 
with  the  growing  Christian  consciousness  of  the  realm 
guided  by  the  devout  king. 

On  the  whole  the  influence  of  Godwine  and  his 
house  upon  the  religious  life  was  rather  negative  than 
positive.  He  pursued  methods  to  secure  the  throne 
for  his  family  that  illy  accorded  with  even  the  low 
Christian  sentiment  of  his  time.  He  founded  no  re- 
ligious houses,  and  as  matters  went  in  that  age  such 
a  failure  might  be  regarded  as  a  neglect  if  not  a  dis-- 
like  of  religion  with  one  so  rich  and  powerful. 

Edward  the  Confessor  under  a  vow  had  purposed 
a  pious  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  but  yielded  to  the  out- 
cry of  his  nobility  and  people  against  the  plan  for 
fear  of  Danish  invasion,  the  pope  granting  him  abso- 
lution from  it.  Instead  he  freed  the  people  from  the 
burdensome  ship  tax  to  pay  hired  sailors  for  the  pro- 
tected fleet,  and  furthered  the  project  of  building 
Westminster.  This  great  foundation  was  the  su- 
premest  purpose  of  the  pious  Confessor.  From  the 
pope  he  obtained  the  right  to  make  it  the  place  to 
crown  the  English  sovereigns,  a  residence  for  Bene- 
dictine monks,  and  to  be  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  king  only,  not  even  the  bishop  of  the  diocese 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  85 

to  have  any  authority  over  it.  Then  an  elaborate 
dedication  of  it  took  place,  and  five  days  after  it  the 
pious  king  died.  His  reign  had  been  so  mild,  and  so 
much  directed  by  the  spirit  of  Christianity  that  his 
sainthood  was  firmly  established  in  the  thought  of 
the  masses,  for  they  deemed  he  had  the  power  of 
prophecy  and  of  working  miracles. 

But  in  spite  of  this  reputation  of  the  king  a  condi- 
tion had  obtained  in  the  whole  realm  by  which  church- 
men, like  bishops  and  abbots,  were  appointed,  not 
upon  merit  nor  upon  the  suffrages  of  their  chapters, 
but  as  a  result  of  court  intrigue  and  corruption. 
The  king's  authority  was  needed  to  give  validity  to 
such  appointments,  hence  his  own  creatures  mostly 
held  the  important  posts.  Nor  was  simony  unknown. 
Indeed,  it  had  made  blots  upon  the  nation's  fame  in 
most  of  this  period.  As  early  as  666  the  see  of  Lon- 
don was  bought  by  Bishop  Wini.  Indications  of  this 
evil  are  not  lacking  in  all  the  history  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  becoming  a  crying  evil  in  the  reign  of 
Canute's  sons,  the  high  places  going  to  him  who 
could  offer  the  most  money  for  them.  The  Bernician 
bishopric  was  sold  by  Hathacanute  to  Eadred,  a 
secular  priest.  Even  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  when 
so  much  sanctity  was  claimed  in  the  conduct  of 
ecclesiastical  matters,  the  court,  if  not  the  king  and 
Godwine,  was  tainted  with  the  selling  and  buying  of 
church  positions.  Much  of  this  corruption  could  be 
charged  up  to  the  Norman  favorites  thronging  the 
kingdom,  their  course  in  this  being  fully  in  accord 
with  the  spirit  rife  on  the  continent  where  the  clergy 
from  the  lowest  upward  through  all  the  hierarchy 


86  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

including  the  popes,  made  the  religious  life  putrid 
with  this  blasting  crime. 

During  this  period  a  new  office,  that  of  canons, 
was  introduced  into  some  of  the  cathedrals  of  Eng- 
land. The  duties  of  the  canons  were  partly  those 
of  the  regular  clergy,  being  attached  to  a  cathedral, 
devoted  to  a  common  life,  instructing  the  young. 
They  also  celebrated  the  divine  offices,  and  per- 
formed some  of  the  higher  acts  of  charity.  Each 
canon  had  his  own  separate  estate,  hence  arose 
prebendary  allotments  to  particular  individuals. 
Out  of  this  office  grew  the  cathedral  chapters.  One 
earl,  at  least,  in  that  age  saw  the  worth  of  religious 
houses,  Leofric  of  Mercia,  who,  with  his  wife,  the 
devoted  Godiva,  founded  a  monastery  at  Coventry, 
conferred  much  gold  and  silver  upon  the  abbey 
church,  and  founded  also  the  monasteries  of  Leone 
and  Wenlock,  besides  repairing  and  endowing  others. 
In  connection  with  the  monastery  town  of  Coventry 
arose  the  legend  of  Godiva's  unhabilitated  ride 
through  the  streets  to  free  the  people  from  a  servile 
tenure. 

The  clouds  portending  the  Norman  Conquest  were 
thickening  over  England.  Duke  William  of  Nor- 
mandy claimed  that  Edward  promised  the  succession 
to  him  in  case  he  lacked  descendants  and  the  wily 
duke  when  holding  Harold  in  his  power  also  ex- 
tracted a  promise  of  the  crown  from  him.  For  on 
the  death  of  Godwine  the  great  earldom  of  Wessex 
with  other  sources  of  power  fell  to  Harold,  and  the 
schemes  of  Godwine  to  have  his  family  occupy  the 
throne  appeared  more  and  more  sure  of  fulfillment. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  87 

Harold  favored  the  secular  clergy,  deeming  them  on 
their  parishes  and  married  able  to  do  better  service 
to  their  country  and  in  their  age  than  celibate 
monks.  When  he  founded  his  great  secular  college 
of  Waltham  he  put  these  men  and  not  monks  in 
charge  of  it. 

Edward  died  childless.  At  once  the  Witan  elected 
Harold  king.  It  was  William's  opportunity.  To 
give  his  invasion  the  cast  of  sanctity  he  declared  it 
his  purpose  to  drive  out  the  oathbreaker  Harold, 
whose  crime  and  sin  must  be  very  great,  since  the 
oath  was  extorted  from  Harold  when  he  was  help- 
less in  the  hands  of  his  rival.  Further,  the  pope's 
sanction  being  obtained  and  the  royal  banner  being 
blessed  by  that  royal  successor  of  St.  Peter,  the  move- 
ment assumed  somewhat  the  form  of  a  crusade. 
Harold,  beset  by  other  enemies,  his  own  brother 
Tostig  and  a  host  of  Norwegians  at  the  north, 
bloodily  defeated  them  in  a  terrific  battle  at  Stam- 
ford Bridge,  and  at  the  same  time  a  favorable  wind 
wafted  the  fleet  of  William  to  the  southern  shores  of 
England.  Harold,  though  so  illy  prepared  after 
the  other  struggle  to  meet  the  splendidly  equipped 
army  of  the  northern  duke,  did  not  fail  to  accept 
the  menace  and  on  the  fateful  field  of  Senlac  lost 
kingdom  and  life  the  same  day.  William,  like 
Canute,  became  an  English  king.  He  was  duly 
elected  by  a  Witenagemot  called  for  that  object, 
was  crowned  by  Aeldred,  archbishop  of  York,  and 
announced  that  the  laws  of  the  land  should  remain 
unchanged. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Norman  Conquest  had  a  profound  influence 
on  the  religious  life  of  England.  It  placed  the  peo- 
ple in  more  intimate  relations  with  the  continent, 
enlarging  the  vision  by  leading  from  the  insular  nar- 
rowness already  manifesting  itself.  Progress  in 
many  ways  was  better  on  the  continent  than  on  the 
island.  For  several  generations  the  decay  of  Eng- 
lish life  had  been  apparent  even  to  many  of  the 
English  themselves,  showing  itself  in  the  backward 
condition  of  knowledge  and  thought,  in  the  weak 
government,  and  most  sadly  in  the  corruptions  of 
church  and  society.  England  was  not  as  rapidly 
becoming  a  political  power  as  France  and  other 
continental  nations.  The  Norman  occupancy  by  its 
very  roughness  and  the  shock  it  gave  to  the  national 
spirit,  by  its  strong  sovereigns  and  educated  prelates 
was  to  infuse  new  energy  and  to  give  the  attrition 
needed  for  better  national  growth  and  purer  reli- 
gious development. 

William  on  his  coronation  day  swore  to  govern 
his  new  subjects  with  clemency  and  justice  but  ere- 
long discovered  grounds  to  depart  widely  from  those 
pacific  promises.  A  part  of  what  he  deemed  rights 
of  conquest  and  means  of  retaining  it  was  to  change 
the  prelates.  He  soon  began  systematic  displacing 
of  native  prelates  and  substituting  Norman  church- 
men on  whom  he  could  rely  for  sustaining  his  claim 

to  sovereignty.     From  the  start  the  English  were 

88 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


89 


turbulent  though  the  king  sought  to  reconcile  them 
to  his  sway  by  allowing  them  to  retain  their  laws 
and  customs  as  far  as  they  could  do  so  with  safety. 
Many  of  William's  followers  promised  rich  booty  in 
land,  offices  and  honors,  contemptuously  despised 
the  rough  islanders,  sneered  at  their  appearance, 
their  language  and  their  church  practices.  Eng 
lish  nobles  like  the  prelates  were  set  aside,  their  wide 
manors  and  domains  distributed  among  the  rapa- 
cious followers  of  William.  Scores  of  churchmen 
brought  from  the  continent  were  put  in  the  dioceses 
and  abbeys  as  soon  as  the  king  could  find  any  decent 
excuse  to  remove  the  incumbents.  Egelsin,  abbot 
of  St.  Augustine's,  Canterbury,  tried  to  placate  the 
king  and  retain  his  place  by  conveying  some  rich 
manors  into  the  possession  of  William's  favorites, 
but  seeing  this  was  not  enough  to  secure  himself,  he 
gathered  the  money  and  jewels  of  the  monasteries 
and  fleeing  to  Denmark  never  returned.  Wulstan, 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  stoutly  pleaded  for  justice  in 
his  case  and  finally  held  his  see,  but  this  clemency 
was  a  lone  exception.  Schools  were  soon  founded 
to  teach  the  French  language,  as  the  conquerors 
despised  what  seemed  to  them  the  barbarous  speech 
of  the  English.  Before  the  Conquest  bishoprics 
and  abbeys  were  exempted  from  dues  to  the  crown, 
but  now  their  incumbents  were  compelled  like  the 
barons  to  furnish  soldiers  and  bear  other  national 
burdens. 

Some  of  the  Norman  prelates  were  displeased 
with  the  monks,  claiming  that  the  seculars  were  bet- 
ter adapted  to  the  duties  required  than  the  others. 


90  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

But  Lanfranc,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  his 
high  position  protected  the  monks.  A  synod,  1075, 
in  London,  decreed  that  no  cleric  was  to  act  as 
judge  where  loss  of  limb  or  life  was  involved.  An- 
other synod  a  year  later,  decreed  that  no  cleric 
should  be  married  but  if  a  priest  having  charge  at 
a  castle  or  village  already  had  a  wife  he  was  not  to 
put  her  away,  and  after  that  no  bishop  was  to 
ordain  one  unless  pledged  not  to  marry.  This  hin^ 
dered  young  men  from  taking  orders.  These  rules 
of  cleric  marriage  were  not  fully  observed,  the  Eng- 
lish church  in  this  respect  holding  itself  partly  free. 
No  layman  was  to  marry  without  the  priest's  bless- 
ing, else  it  was  sin. 

William  ordered  the  laws  of  the  Confessor  to  be 
hunted  up  and  codified  for  use,  appointing  twelve 
men  under  the  bishop  of  London  and  the  archbishop 
of  York  to  find  them  and  write  them  out.  While 
deferring  much  to  papal  wishes,  since  his  attack 
upon  England  had  the  blessing  of  that  power,  he 
was  not  as  subservient  as  Rome  desired.  He  con- 
firmed the  laws  of  tithe,  promised  the  payment  of 
Peter  Pence,  but  utterly  refused  homage  to  the 
pope  and  would  not  admit  official  letters  from  his 
holiness  to  enter  England  until  it  was  found  that 
they  suited  his  wishes. 

In  the  Domesday  Book,  ordered  in  1085,  only 
about  seventeen  hundred  churches  are  enumerated, 
though  as  many  as  forty-five  thousand  had  been 
claimed  for  the  country.  The  number  given  in  the 
Domesday  Book  is  for  a  part  of  the  country  only, 
the  other  number  is  plainly  too  large,  so  that 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


91 


neither  is  reliable.  Most  of  these  churches  had  en- 
dowment in  lands  from  a  few  acres  to  a  hundred. 
William  inaugurated  a  series  of  dual  courts,  church 
and  civil,  since  before  that  time  matters  of  both 
had  been  united  in  the  same  courts.  This  division, 
possibly  of  use  then,  was  later  to  hatch  a  nest  of 
active  troubles.  He  had  laws  enacted  for  govern- 
ing cases  in  each  of  these  courts,  and  property  that 
had  been  filched  from  the  bishoprics  and  abbeys  he 
had  restored.  Insistent  as  he  was  that  only  pious 
and  educated  men  should  be  given  clerical  prefer- 
ment, places  of  small  account  as  well  as  great  ones 
were  gradually  filled  under  his  direction.  The  Bat- 
tle Abbey  built  on  the  fateful  field  of  Senlac  was  ex- 
empted from  episcopal  visitation.  At  this  time 
Patrick,  the  bishop  of  Dublin,  came  to  Lanfranc  for 
confirmation,  as  did  his  immediate  successor, 
Donogh,  and  others  followed,  some  of  these  men 
working  diligently  for  the  reformation  and  prog- 
ress of  the  religious  life  in  Ireland.  The  bishop  of 
the  Orcades  also  sought  confirmation  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  York. 

Lanfranc,  with  all  his  modesty,  was  a  tireless 
worker  for  religion,  rebuilding  dilapidated  cathe- 
drals and  monasteries,  was  learned,  the  author  of 
several  works  of  church  service  as  well  as  a  suc- 
cessful antagonist  of  Beranger  who  wrote  against 
the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  consecrated  bread 
of  the  sacrament.  The  real  presence  had  become  a 
general  tenet  in  the  western  church  and  Beranger 
for  combating  it  was  cited  as  a  heretic  before 
councils,  popes  and  cardinals,  there  to  recant,  only 


92  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

to  deny  his  recantation  when  out  of  danger.  After 
the  riot  of  Glastonbury,  the  bishop  of  Salisbury  de- 
vised a  plan  of  church  service  used  over  all  Eng- 
land and  known  as  the  "Use  of  Sarum." 

William  Rufus  on  his  accession  found  immense 
treasure  in  the  king's  hoard,  of  which  according  to 
his  father's  will,  for  the  benefit  of  his  soul,  Rufus 
gave  to  each  of  the  greater  churches  ten  marks,  to 
the  smaller  ones  five  shillings,  and  to  each  county 
a  hundred  pounds  for  distribution  among  the  poor. 
The  pleasing  promises  of  the  new  king  were  soon 
ignored,  the  see  of  Canterbury  after  Lanfranc's 
death,  was  left  vacant  three  years,  the  income  go- 
ing into  the  king's  hands.  In  like  manner  clutch- 
ing the  income  of  other  prelates'  places  as  they 
became  vacant,  and  those  of  abbots  as  well,  the  king 
used  the  means  for  his  own  selfish  purposes  instead 
of  devoting  them  piously  to  charitable  or  public 
ends.  In  vivid  contrast  to  the  distress  and  lax  dis- 
cipline prevailing  through  the  course  of  the  Eng- 
lish king,  Scotland,  under  the  benign  influence  of 
Queen  Margaret  over  the  rugged  Malcolm  enjoyed 
a  most  pleasant  religious  life,  churches  being  built 
with  other  proofs  of  progress. 

The  Crusades  broke  out  during  these  times  and 
Robert,  the  brother  of  William  Rufus  mortgaged 
the  duchy  of  Normandy  to  the  English  king  for 
money  with  which  to  go  on  a  crusade.  To  raise 
the  money  the  king  laid  exorbitant  taxes  upon  his 
people,  sold  church  ornaments,  plundered  altars  of 
their  rich  offerings,  even  tearing  the  gold  and  sil- 
ver ornaments  from  the  Bibles  in  the  cathedrals. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  93 

As  it  was  a  holy  cause  the  primate  aided  the  king 
in  raising  this  money. 

In  1091,  the  great  abbey  of  Croyland  was  burned, 
the  fire  consuming  about  seven  hundred  precious 
manuscript  books,  large  and  small,  with  other  choice 
treasures.  The  ways  entered  upon  to  rebuild  it 
give  us  rare  glimpses  of  the  inner  life.  Special  in- 
dulgences were  granted  by  adjacent  bishops  to 
those  aiding  the  work,  nobles  and  the  lower  people 
contributing  money,  food,  live  stock  and  many  other 
means,  one  poor  old  woman,  Juliana  of  Weston,  as 
the  widow's  mite,  giving  thread  spun  by  her  own 
hand  to  sew  the  garments  of  the  monks.  A  new  ab- 
bot, Jaffrid,  from  Normandy,  coming  a  few  years 
later  was  not  satisfied  with  the  poor  buildings  and 
sought  means  to  build  again.  He  did  this  by  sell- 
ing remittances  of  penances  and  fasts  in  various 
dioceses,  sending  out  monks  to  find  this  money  in 
a  manner  similar  to  Tetzel's  sales  that  so  aroused 
Luther  four  centuries  later.  When  the  foundations 
of  the  great  monastery  were  laid,  a  noble  would  put 
in  one  stone  and  then  lay  on  it  a  sum  of  money, 
twenty  pounds,  another  ten  marks,  or  a  journey- 
man's labor  for  a  year,  patronage  of  a  church,  tithes 
of  all  his  sheep  and  the  like.  This  Jaffrid  insti- 
tuted flagellations  upon  himself  on  Good  Friday  in 
which  distressing  course  he  was  followed  by  his 
monks. 

On  the  accession  of  Henry  First,  a  younger 
brother  of  William  Rufus,  he  took  steps  at  once  to 
clear  his  court  of  the  vileness  blackening  it  under 
his  brother's  course.  In  his  coronation  oath  he 


94  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

promised  to  restore  the  laws  of  Edward  and  William 
First.  He  filled  the  sees  of  Canterbury,  Winchester 
and  Salisbury,  kept  vacant  by  his  brother  who  used 
their  income  for  his  own  purposes,  and  promised, 
though  he  did  not  keep  the  pledge,  not  to  sell 
benefices  or  use  their  income.  The  noble  work  a 
prelate  could  do  if  so  disposed  was  shown  in  Thomas, 
archbishop  of  York,  who  died  the  same  year.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  learning  and  diligent  in  his  la- 
bors. His  province  he  found  most  demoralized  but 
in  many  ways  he  restored  it.  He  filled  the  vacant 
canonships,  built  the  cathedral,  placing  in  it  an  ex- 
tensive library,  wrote  books,  composed  hymns,  in- 
troduced choirs  and  divided  the  diocese  into  arch- 
deaconries. 

On  Robert's  return  from  the  Crusade,  finding 
Henry  on  the  throne  instead  of  William  Rufus,  he 
deemed  it  usurpation.  Appealing  to  arms  he 
landed  an  army  on  English  soil,  but  the  men  of  Eng- 
land, barons  and  prelates,  Anselm  among  them,  suc- 
ceeding in  effecting  a  settlement  without  war.  The 
agreement  was  that  Henry  should  pay  four  thou- 
sand marks  a  year,  the  crown  to  descend  to  Robert's 
issue  if  none  was  left  by  Henry.  This  danger  past 
the  quarrel  over  investiture  began  anew,  both  Henry 
and  Anselm  appealing  to  the  pope.  The  pope  in- 
sisted that  the  investitures  by  the  king  were  void, 
but  there  being  great  influence  in  the  party  of  the 
king,  the  archbishop  consented  for  the  time  to  com- 
municate with  those  given  investiture  by  Henry  but 
not  to  consecrate  them.  Among  other  things  Henry 
agreed  to  restore  to  Canterbury  and  Anselm  the  ben- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  95 

efits  of  that  province.  In  spite  of  synod  and  prel- 
ates marriage  of  the  priests  went  on,  many  of  them 
seeming  to  think  that  nature's  laws  and  God's  word 
in  favor  of  it  were  above  the  action  of  canon  law, 
councils  and  synods  against  it.  In  various  ways 
besides  in  the  matter  of  investiture  the  pope  was 
laying  claim  to  supremacy  in  England.  When  the 
pope  tried  to  impose  a  legate  upon  England  the 
king  refused  to  accept  him.  One  going  to  Rome 
with  an  appeal,  or  on  church  business,  had,  in  order 
to  gain  his  purpose,  to  give  large  bribes  which  were 
more  potent  than  justice  or  righteousness. 

The  building  of  great  religious  houses  went  on 
during  the  Norman  period.  Carlisle  devastated 
near  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  by  the  Danes  had 
lain  in  ruins  till  William  Rufus  rebuilt  it,  and  in 
Henry  First's  time  the  locality  was  made  a  bishop- 
ric. A  college  was  also  erected,  the  diocese  includ- 
ing the  counties  of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland. 
At  Chichester  a  magnificent  monastery  was  built  for 
the  canons  who  were  now  without  benefices,  all  prop- 
erty being  renounced  and  vows  taken  of  constancy, 
obedience  and  poverty.  Another  monastery  was 
built  at  Dunstable,  and  one  for  the  Cluniacs  at 
Reading,  all  of  these  foundations  being  richly  en- 
dowed, the  inmates  freely  distributing  alms  to  the 
passers-by. 

Stephen,  on  being  elected  king,  gave  a  renewed 
charter  favorable  to  the  church  only  to  neglect  it 
when  he  was  fully  in  the  saddle.  Theobald  became 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  was  another  of  those 
great  prelates  who  did  noble  service  if  church  pre- 


96  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

sumptions  against  the  assumptions  of  Norman  sov- 
ereigns was  of  worth  to  the  realm.  At  a  synod  in 
Westminster  in  1138,  it  was  ordered  that  clerics 
who  went  hunting  or  entered  secular  affairs  for  en- 
riching themselves  should  be  suspended,  and  similar 
prohibition  was  declared  against  their  taking  arms, 
though  a  bishop  at  the  north  had  just  led  a  force 
against  the  Scot  invaders.  The  same  synod  de- 
clared that  any  cleric  who  was  married  was  doomed 
to  hell. 

Between  Henry  Second  and  his  primates  arose 
one  of  those  great  contests  between  the  secular  na- 
tional life  and  the  claim  of  clerical  supremacy. 
Thomas  Becket  had  been  aai  intimate  companion  of 
Henry  for  some  years,  was  educated,  courtly,  able, 
and  had  finally  been  elevated  to  the  chancellorship. 
Finding  that  rich  manors  belonging  to  Canterbury 
had  been  bestowed  upon  court  favorites,  Becket 
claimed  their  return  and  being  refused  so  stood  upon 
his  rights  that  he  excommunicated  the  claimants, 
which  exasperated  the  court  and  turned  even  the 
king  away  from  his  archbishop.  The  archbishop 
claimed  the  control  of  church  courts  in  all  cases 
even  when  clerics  were  guilty  of  murder,  robbery 
and  other  high  crimes.  The  contest  drew  the  eyes 
of  the  continental  powers  since  it  was  with  them  as 
with  Henry.  Appealing  to  the  customs  and  laws 
of  the  past  in  the  realm,  Henry  collected  what  was 
known  as  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon.  These 
really  made  a  strong  position  for  Henry's  conten- 
tions. By  these  laws  the  king's  consent  was  needed 
for  the  election  of  bishop  or  abbot,  these  men  hold- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  97 

ing  their  land  as  a  barony  from  the  king,  subject 
to  the  usual  taxation  and  appearance  in  court. 

Becket,  awhile  after  signing  the  Constitutions, 
repudiated  them  but  for  a  moment  seemed  reconciled 
to  Henry.  After  one  of  the  unsatisfactory  settle- 
ments Becket  returned  to  Canterbury  and  Henry 
was  in  Normandy.  At  a  passing  cause  of  exaspera- 
tion the  king  let  fall  some  reproach  that  of  the  many 
he  kept  about  him  none  freed  him  from  that  inso- 
lent priest.  This  was  taken  by  some  of  them  as  a 
bid  for  the  primate's  life,  and  four  knights,  making 
their  way  to  Canterbury  sustained  by  a  rabble  and 
even  by  some  clerics,  assassinated  Becket  in  his 
church.  No  one  was  more  horrified  than  the  king 
who  did  not  intend  to  have  such  an  extremity 
reached.  To  the  pope  he  disclaimed  the  purpose  to 
have  Becket  killed,  the  four  assassins  found  no  favor 
with  him  but  as  frightened  fugitives  were  put  under 
heavy  penances,  one  punishment  being  to  make  a 
pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  where  at  least  three  of 
them  died.  For  his  part  Henry  modified  the  Con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon,  promised  to  undertake  a 
crusade  of  three  years,  to  have  the  Templars  keep 
two  hundred  soldiers  a  year  at  his  expense,  to  bring 
back  the  banished  clergy  and  restore  their  estates, 
and  other  pledges  were  made  by  him  and  by  the 
heir  apparent.  At  the  tomb  of  Becket  it  was  said 
that  miracles  began  to  take  place.  Pilgrimages 
were  made  to  it,  the  pope  canonized  him,  and  in 
succeeding  years,  his  shrine  having  become  one  of 
the  most  noted  in  Christendom  vast  sums  of  money 
as  offerings  of  the  pious  were  laid  upon  it. 


CHAPTER  X 

In  1173  Henry  personally  conducted  a  campaign 
in  Ireland,  some  of  his  troops  having  invaded  it  be- 
fore, as  the  pope  had  given  permission  to  be  done. 
On  their  subjection  the  Irish  clergy  agreed  that  it 
was  a  just  judgment  of  Heaven  for  their  trade  in 
English  slaves  and  they  promised  to  set  them  free. 
Four  archbishops  had  been  set  up  in  Ireland, 
Armagh,  Cashel,  Dublin,  and  Tuam,  with  twenty- 
nine  suffragan  bishops  all  dependent  upon  the  Eng- 
lish hierarchy.  The  ritual  used  was  similar  to  that 
of  England.  In  Scotland  much  the  same  depend- 
ence upon  England  existed,  though  certain  restless- 
ness and  a  wish  to  be  independent  of  the  southern 
neighbor  marked  the  Scots  as  well  as  the  Irish. 

By  action  of  the  synods  we  can  get  insight  into 
the  religious  life  not  otherwise  obtained.  Thus  one 
held  in  Normandy  when  Henry  abjured  a  part  of 
the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  under  remorse  at 
Becket's  death,  decreed  that  children  or  minors  were 
not  to  be  admitted  to  benefices.  The  sons  of  priests 
for  the  taint  upon  their  legitimacy  and  to  prevent 
clerics  from  becoming  a  hereditary  class,  were  not 
to  succeed  their  fathers  in  church  living.  If  a  hus- 
band or  wife  in  years  desired  to  join  a  religious 
house  permission  was  not  given  if  the  other  pre- 
ferred to  remain  secular.  None  could  be  permitted 
to  escape  fasting  upon  Lent  unless  ill,  and  clerks 

must  shun  secular  jurisdiction.     Another  synod  de- 

98 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  99 

creed  that  a  priest  drinking  at  a  public  house  should 
be  degraded,  and  if  they  let  their  hair  grow  long  it 
should  be  cropped  by  the  archdeacon.  They  must 
not  obtain  orders  out  of  their  own  diocese  nor 
should  vicars  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  rectors, 
clandestine  marriage  was  forbidden  since  all  must 
be  married  in  a  church,  infant  marriage  being  null 
unless  when  they  were  grown  up  they  consented  to 
it,  a  church  must  not  be  given  as  a  dower,  monks 
must  not  turn  farmer  or  soldier  or  merchant.  The 
bread  of  the  eucharist  must  not  be  dipped  into  the 
wine  and  the  wine  must  be  consecrated  only  in  a 
gold  or  silver  vessel. 

To  help  the  administration  of  justice  Henry  di- 
vided the  kingdom  into  six  sections  with  two  justices 
in  each,  and  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  were 
mostly  followed.  The  Council  of  Rome,  1179,  that 
excommunicated  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses,  had 
delegates  from  all  parts  of  Britain,  some  of  the 
English  clergy  being  among  those  sent  to  bring 
these  heretics  to  orthodoxy. 

Richard  First,  the  Lion  Hearted,  came  to  the 
throne  in  1139,  his  first  great  purpose  being  to  go 
on  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land.  To  raise  money  to 
go  Richard  sold  manors  and  earldoms,  the  bishop 
of  Durham  buying  the  earldom  of  Northumbria  to- 
gether with  the  manor  of  Sudbury  and  the  knights 
belonging  to  it.  Richard  unfortunately  left  rule  in 
England  in  the  hands  of  two  justiciars  who  fell  into 
a  quarrel  in  which  the  clergy  and  even  the  pope 
took  a  part,  one  of  the  justiciars  having  to  flee  the 
kingdom.  In  conduct  most  heartless  the  nobles  and 


100  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

royal  family  indulged  in  the  disorders.  The  savage 
spirit  of  that  age  seemed  to  have  been  let  loose  with 
scarcely  any  check.  When  Richard,  fearing  usur- 
pation by  John,  made  a  truce  with  the  Saracens  and 
was  hastening  to  England,  and  was  captured  and 
held  by  the  German  emperor  for  a  great  ransom, 
the  churches  at  home  raised  the  first  payment  by 
selling  their  rich  plate  and  ornaments  and  by  tax- 
ing the  clergy,  for  the  king  had  been  engaged  in 
holy  war.  Then  because  the  emperor  would  not  re- 
turn the  money  given  for  ransoming  a  crusader,  the 
pope  excommunicated  him. 

John,  coming  to  the  throne  in  1199,  soon  showed 
the  inability  that  later  was  to  alienate  the  papacy 
at  one  time  and  the  nation  at  another.  Two  men  by 
opposing  parties  had  been  elected  to  the  archbishop- 
ric of  Canterbury,  but  both  were  set  aside  by  the 
pope,  who  had  the  English  monks  in  Rome  elect 
Stephen  Langton.  John  objected  to  receiving 
Langton,  and  the  pope,  taking  strenuous  steps  to 
have  his  way,  sent  three  bishops,  of  London,  Worces- 
ter and  Ely,  to  beg  and  threaten.  The  embassy  of 
the  three  bishops  did  not  move  John  from  his  objec- 
tions to  Langton.  His  incorrigibility  led  the  pope 
to  put  the  kingdom  under  interdict. 

When  the  country  had  suffered  some  time  under 
the  interdict  John  consented  to  receive  Langton  but 
with  such  saving  clauses  in  the  letter  patent  that  the 
bishops  knew  the  pope  would  not  accept  it.  Most 
of  the  bishops,  afraid  of  the  king,  fled  oversea,  John 
ordering  all  who  abetted  them  also  to  leave  the  is- 
land. Of  those  clergy  remaining  the  king  ordered 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  19J 

his  sheriffs  to  seize  their  revenues  and  to  leave  only 
a  bare  pittance  for  the  incumbent.  The  priests 
were  mercilessly  robbed,  their  wives  mulcted,  the 
king  seeming  mad  against  the  church.  In  1209  the 
pope  excommunicated  the  recusant  king,  the  fugitive 
bishops  being  ordered  by  the  pope  to  send  the  news 
of  it  into  England  which  they  secretly  did.  Bitter 
was  the  contest. 

To  complete  the  drama  the  pope  deposed  John. 
Philip  Augustus  of  France,  moved  no  doubt  by  cer- 
tain mercenary  motives,  gathered  a  great  arma- 
ment to  invade  England,  the  pope  granting  plenary 
indulgence  to  all  who  would  enter  upon  the  crusade 
and  offering  the  kingdom  to  Philip  in  fee  simple. 
Finally  John,  fearing  that  his  nobility  and  people 
whom  he  had  so  wronged  would  not  sustain  him,  and 
fearing  also  that  the  excommunication  would  cost 
him  his  eternal  welfare,  yielded  abjectly,  taking  oath 
that  he  submitted  to  the  demands  of  the  church. 
Thus  beaten,  humiliated,  the  king  resigned  the  king- 
doms of  England  and  Ireland  into  the  hands  of  the 
papacy,  thence  to  receive  them  again  as  fiefs  of  that 
power.  When  the  banished  prelates  returned,  the 
king  cast  himself  in  tears  at  their  feet,  whence  rais- 
ing him  they  conducted  him  to  the  cathedral  and 
absolved  him,  while  he  pledged  himself  to  revive  the 
laws  of  Edward  and  to  do  all  in  his  power  for  the 
church  and  clergy.  Still  the  interdict  was  not 
raised,  remaining  in  practical  force  for  six 
years. 

Early  in  1215  the  barons  made  insistent  pleas  for 
him  to  redeem  his  pledges,  the  king  answering  that 


103  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

by  Easter  he  would  fulfill  his  pledges,  promising  also 
to  meet  his  promise  to  go  on  a  crusade.  At  that 
date  the  barons  threatened  force,  the  king  in  hot 
blood  rejected  their  demands,  the  prelates  joined  the 
movement  for  better  government  and  on  the  grassy 
field  of  Runnymede  the  baffled  king,  after  confer- 
ence with  these  representatives  of  the  nation, 
granted  the  Magna  Carta.  It  confirmed  previous 
charters  based  upon  that  of  Henry  First,  with  many 
new  provisions  offering  to  England  an  advanced 
guarantee  of  rights  such  as  a  Christian  people  had 
learned  to  expect.  The  church  was  granted  the 
privilege  to  elect  its  bishops  and  abbots.  John  at 
once  sent  a  remonstrance  to  the  pope,  saying  that 
the  charter  was  drawn  from  him  by  force.  That 
prelate  at  once  declared  the  charter  void.  He 
wrote  to  the  barons  protesting  first,  and  then  ex- 
communicating them,  to  which  they  paid  no  heed. 
The  king  with  hired  mercenaries  unavailingly 
fought  the  barons.  Papal  control  of  England  was 
giving  way.  Religious  independence  from  that 
time  was  more  than  before  a  factor  in  England. 
The  contest  over  Magna  Carta  continued  with  John 
and  the  pope  on  one  side  and  the  English  people  on 
the  other. 

His  successor,  Henry  Third,  a  lad  of  ten  years, 
was  compelled  by  the  legate  to  do  homage  for  the 
kingdom.  But  later  Henry  Fourth  swore  to  give 
the  English  people  all  the  rights  claimed  by  his 
father  for  the  barons.  Magna  Carta  was  renewed. 
Indeed  so  much  did  the  people  regard  it  as  the  pal- 
ladium of  their  rights  that  successive  sovereigns  con- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


103 


firmed  it  more  or  less  times  till  the  historian  can 
count  thirty-eight  such  ratifications. 

The  synods  in  their  legislation  give  views  even  by 
their  prohibitions  of  the  progressing  religious  life. 
One  at  Oxford  in  1222  decreed  excommunication 
against  those  injuring  the  church  in  an}7  of  its 
rights,  or  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  de- 
creed the  same  against  any  guilty  of  perjury  or  in- 
subordination or  refusing  to  execute  the  king's 
writs  against  those  excommunicated.  It  said  that 
the  clergy  must  not  take  part  in  trials  involving 
the  loss  of  life,  they  must  preach  often  and  visit  the 
sick.  Abbots,  priors  and  abbesses  must  not  take 
money  of  those  entering  monastic  life  nor  could 
monks  make  the  wills  of  people  taking  that  step. 

The  Romish  pressure  continued  for  money  so 
much  that  the  land  was  greatly  impoverished.  The 
pope's  draft  upon  the  clergy  was  one-twentieth  of 
their  property,  then  one-fifteenth,  and  again  one- 
tenth.  The  relations  between  the  people  and  the 
pope  became  acute.  Mathew  Paris,  writing  of  those 
times,  gives  a  most  distressing  picture.  The  rights 
of  the  English  church  were  lost,  ignoble  prelates 
sent  from  Rome  trampled  upon  religious  privileges, 
interference  from  Rome  became  more  and  more  ex- 
asperating, charity  died,  religion  was  held  in  con- 
tempt, for  there  was  none  but  such  as  was  repre- 
sented by  the  venial  creatures  from  Rome,  property 
was  seized,  no  Englishman  could  secure  a  prominent 
place,  and  general  degeneracy  blighted  all  things. 

Henry  confirmed  Magna  Carta  only  to  violate  its 
provisions.  The  Parliament  in  Oxford,  1258,  un- 


104  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

dertook  to  correct  some  of  the  royal  abuses,  a  com- 
mission of  twenty-four  being  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose, one-half  from  the  king's  Council  and  one-half 
named  by  the  barons.  The  reforms  looked  toward 
correcting  trespasses  of  the  law,  excess  of  demands, 
conduct  of  king's  officers,  to  secure  tenants  from 
unjust  exactions  of  their  lords  and  that  Parliament 
must  be  held  three  times  a  year.  But  the  plan  was 
a  comparative  failure  since  dissensions  came  into 
the  commission  and  the  king  was  left  to  his  own  des- 
potic ways.  The  pope  permitted  Henry  to  violate 
the  provisions  of  Oxford  made  by  the  "Mad  Parlia- 
ment," and  he  and  his  sons  gathered  an  army,  met 
the  barons  on  the  field  of  Lawes,  and  defeated  them. 


CHAPTER  XI 

In  the  thirteenth  century  occurred  one  of  those 
remarkable  revivals  that  have  several  times  marked 
the  religious  life  of  England.  In  the  third  decade 
of  that  century  the  two  kindred  orders  of  monks, 
the  Dominicans  and  the  Franciscans,  came  from  the 
continent  where  they  had  already  succeeded  most 
admirably  in  arousing  all  classes  of  Christian  work- 
ers. The  Dominicans  had  begun  to  teach  in  the 
universities  the  other  side  of  the  Channel  and  here 
they  at  once  pushed  to  Oxford,  beginning  the  activi- 
ties there  which  soon  gave  them  a  commanding  place 
in  that  school.  This  place  of  vantage  they  held 
through  the  decades  following.  Both  orders  were 
pledged  to  poverty  and  other  monastic  vows  and 
they  seem  at  first  to  have  observed  them. 

The  Franciscans  went  among  the  lowly  people  as 
quickly  as  the  Dominicans  went  into  the  universi- 
ties. There  was  call  for  such  ministries,  since  the 
condition  of  the  masses  already  crowding  into  the 
great  cities,  was  most  deplorable.  Poverty,  disease, 
squalor,  despair,  had  accumulated  with  such  collec- 
tion of  the  masses.  They  were  neglected  by  the 
parish  priests  and  by  the  old  monastic  orders,  the 
Cluniacs,  Cistercians,  and  others,  yet  in  their  ig- 
norance and  lowliness  they  knew  their  religious  needs 
and  the  worth  of  the  gospel  messages  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans. The  monks  came  to  them  clad  only  in 

coarse  gray  garments  such  as  the  common  people 

105 


106  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

wore,  they  went  barefoot,  lived  in  the  meanest  hovels, 
ate  the  humblest  fare  and  slept  on  straw  or  on  a 
board.  Their  teaching  and  preaching  were  of  the 
plainest  kind,  the  simplest  truths  of  the  gospel, 
with  quaint  words,  apt  stories,  rude  illustrations. 

The  people  listened  and  were  appreciative  of  the 
self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  newcomers.  They 
flocked  to  hear  the  evangel,  causing  them  to  mend 
their  ways  and  lives,  so  that  uplift  and  change  to 
better  things  passed  from  slums  and  lowly  things  to 
the  upper  classes  and  to  their  abodes.  Hospitals, 
lazar  houses,  monasteries,  were  established,  a  spirit 
of  human  sympathy  as  never  before  pervaded  the  na- 
tion. Parish  priests,  monks,  officials,  bishops,  were 
profoundly  moved  with  new  energies.  Many  gutters 
of  corruption  were  filled  instead  with  honest  dealings 
and  purity  of  life.  Medical  skill  learned  by  the 
Franciscans  ministered  to  the  afflicted.  Leprosy,  so 
prevalent  in  those  centuries,  was  a  special  thought 
of  their  care. 

In  time  the  Franciscans  went  into  the  universities 
like  the  Dominicans.  One  product  of  their  mental 
and  spiritual  activity  was  that  monkish  marvel, 
Roger  Bacon.  In  him  was  centered  all  the  learn- 
ing of  the  age  so  that  the  pope  sent  from  Rome  for 
a  statement  of  his  knowledge  and  the  great  scholar 
with  scanty  recognition  labored  years  for  the  bishop 
of  Rome.  Other  scholars  scarcely  less  able  than  he 
were  also  produced  among  the  crowds  that  thronged 
to  the  lectures  of  those  admirable  teachers.  But 
after  two  or  three  generations  it  became  the  old 
story  of  the  orders  before  them, — they  grew  rich, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  107 

having  evaded  their  vows  of  poverty,  they  built  great 
monasteries  which  became  places  far  removed  from 
their  original  vocation,  negligence  came  as  a  dis- 
ease, they  grew  lazy,  corrupt,  and  much  of  the  good 
coming  in  the  great  revival  was  lost,  but  not  all. 
The  uplift  of  the  people  partly  remained  from  which 
they  never  wholly  sank  back. 

An  important  synod  was  held  in  London  in  1268 
under  the  presidency  of  the  papal  legate,  Othobon, 
in  which  rules  were  laid  down  that,  in  some  cases, 
have  been  used  in  the  English  church  ever  since. 
No  pay  was  allowed  for  baptism  and  that  service 
was  carefully  looked  after  by  the  archdeacons  and 
parish  clergy,  strong  ground  was  taken  against 
non-residency  and  intrusion,  it  renewed  the  right 
of  sanctuary,  enjoined  public  marriages,  and  the 
bishops  were  not  allowed  to  bequeath  the  various 
livings.  If  private  chapels  were  built  they  were  not 
to  use  the  living  of  the  incumbent,  nor  were  parish 
tithes  to  be  alienated  from  him.  Excommunication 
was  to  be  taken  off  publicly,  vigorous  action  was  en- 
tered on  against  pluralities,  simony  or  commendams, 
bishops  elect  were  to  be  examined  in  life  and  doc- 
trine, while  secular  business  was  forbidden  the 
churches. 

The  custom  now  grew  up  for  the  laity  to  take 
the  sacrament  in  only  one  kind.  They  were  told 
that  both  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Savior  were 
present  in  consecrated  bread  but  that  the  conse- 
crated wine  as  the  real  blood  of  Christ  was  to  be 
drunk  by  priests  alone.  At  first  this  new  custom 
was  introduced  only  among  the  very  ignorant 


108  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

classes.  The  sacrament  was  not  to  be  given  to  any 
one  unconfessed  and  children  baptized  by  a  layman 
were  not  afterward  to  be  baptized  by  a  priest.  In- 
stead of  hiding  the  sin  of  incest  and  kindred  ones  in 
a  priest  the  penance  must  be  open.  Priests  were 
required  so  to  instruct  the  people  that  they  would 
not  be  ignorant  of  the  teachings  of  the  church. 
Every  quarter  of  the  year  they  must  tell  the  people 
of  the  fourteen  articles  of  faith,  the  ten  command- 
ments, the  two  evangelical  precepts  of  love,  the  seven 
works  of  mercy,  the  seven  deadly  sins,  the  seven 
principal  virtues,  the  seven  sacraments.  Of  the  ar- 
ticles of  faith  seven  pertained  to  the  mystery  of  the 
Trinity  and  seven  to  the  humanity  of  Christ.  The 
seven  deadly  sins  were  pride,  envy,  anger,  hatred, 
aversion  to  good  and  to  religion,  covetousness  and 
epicureanism.  The  seven  principal  virtues  were 
faith,  hope,  charity,  prudence,  temperance,  justice, 
fortitude.  The  seven  sacraments  were  baptism,  con- 
firmation, penance,  eucharist,  extreme  unction,  or- 
ders, matrimony.  The  priests  besides  teaching  these 
doctrines  were  required  to  preach  upon  points  of 
faith  and  doctrine.  The  people  were  required  to 
be  present  every  Sunday  at  church  to  learn  the  faith. 
Edward  Second,  coming  to  the  throne  in  1307, 
soon  aroused  commotion  among  the  clergy  by  his 
levities,  the  matter  so  attracting  the  attention  of  the 
pope  that  his  interference  provoked  the  king  to 
question  his  rights.  Edward  granted  some  of  the 
chaplains  pluralities,  and  the  bishop  of  Chester,  who 
had  reproved  him  for  his  misconduct,  he  cast  for  a 
brief  time  into  prison. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  109 

The  Knights  Templars,  an  outgrowth  of  the  Cru- 
sades, who  did  valiant  services  in  Palestine  and  in 
the  Mediterranean  against  the  Saracens  became 
rich,  had  their  houses  in  various  countries  of  Eu- 
rope, the  result  of  their  wealth  being  that  they  fell 
into  such  corruption  and  intemperance  that  it  was 
considered  necessary  to  suppress  them.  The  rough 
spirit  of  the  age  decreed  this  in  1312  at  the  Council 
of  Vienna  when  the  governments  of  Europe  pro- 
ceeded to  carry  out  the  papal  mandate.  In  Eng- 
land they  were  seized,  imprisoned,  scattered  for 
penance  among  the  monasteries  and  their  property 
turned  over  to  the  kindred  order  of  Hospitallers. 

An  important  document  was  drawn  up  by  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  owing  to  the  difference 
of  opinion  of  the  right  person  to  have  charge  of 
the  parish.  This  paper,  by  its  prohibitions,  at  least 
defined  negatively  the  duties  of  the  parish  priest, 
and  being  made  a  law  of  Parliament  called  "Articuli 
Cleri,"  has  had  an  effect  upon  the  relations  of  state 
and  church  all  the  way  downward.  It  recognized 
the  fact  that  power  in  the  crown  of  England  is  the 
source  of  English  constitution.  When  the  arch- 
bishop died,  the  people,  counting  him  a  saint,  so 
crowded  to  his  tomb  that  it  had  to  be  torn  down. 
In  contrast  to  this  the  succeeding  archbishop,  Wal- 
ter Reynolds,  on  coming  to  the  see  secured  eight 
bulls  from  the  pliant  pope  so  absolving  him  from 
canon  law  that  he  was  allowed  pluralities,  the  in- 
come of  any  collegiate  church  or  cathedral,  pardon 
for  crimes  against  clerks  or  others. 

Under   Edward   Third   matters   became  worse  if 


110  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

possible  and  one  wonders  if  the  teaching  of  the  church 
all  those  centuries  was  not  almost  in  vain.  One  ray 
of  light  was  that  a  strong  anti-cleric  feeling  was 
engendered  which  gave  promise  of  relief  from  the 
corrupting  hierarchy.  In  London  and  elsewhere 
the  clergy  were  murdered  in  the  recurring  riots. 
In  a  contemporary  song  shocking  bloodshed  is 
shown,  the  prelates  are  represented  as  so  covered 
with  pride  and  covetousness  as  to  drive  divine  peace 
out  of  the  land.  Truth  was  forbidden  in  the  court 
of  Rome  and  dared  not  appear  among  the  cardinals, 
simony  and  covetousness  had  the  world  at  will. 
When  a  church  became  vacant,  so  the  song  declared, 
he  who  could  give  the  most  money  to  patron  and 
bishop,  obtained  it.  Abbots  and  priors  rode  with 
horses  and  hounds  like  knights,  while  poor  men  cow- 
ered all  day  at  abbey-gates  with  hunger  and  cold. 

Holy  days  became  days  of  riot  instead  of  devo- 
tion. The  pope  would  name  some  one  to  fill  an 
important  place  against  its  becoming  vacant  and 
then  exact  money  for  the  promise  of  it.  This  led 
to  the  famous  "Provisors."  Still  another  ray  of 
light  shone  in  such  moral  night.  The  cities  were 
growing  rich,  burghers  were  increasing,  villagers 
were  thinking  and  questioning  about  their  rights, 
intellect  was  astir,  where  all  the  money  went  was 
asked,  and  the  anti-cleric  feeling  was  especially  bit- 
ter against  the  great  ecclesiastical  houses  which 
stood  in  their  immense  wealth  so  vividly  in  contrast 
with  the  squalid  living  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Black  Death  coming  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  from  the  east  made  direct  devas- 
tations over  Europe  before  the  end  of  the  century. 
Owing  to  the  limited  medical  insight  and  to  the  lack 
of  sanitary  understanding,  the  ravages  were  incom- 
prehensible, a  large  share  of  the  people  dying  off, 
computed  in  some  countries  at  one-half.  As  the 
pestilence  spread  prelates  tried  to  stop  its  ravages 
by  processions  and  by  stations  in  the  churches. 
None  seemed  to  think  of  sanitation.  It  was  a  time 
when  the  noblest  heroism  could  be  shown  or  the  most 
abject  cowardice.  Both  can  be  traced.  In  Eng- 
land some  priests  stood  nobly  by,  and  ministering, 
died ;  others  fled  from  their  parishes  and  posts,  vainly 
hoping  to  escape  from  the  clutch  of  the  destroyer. 
The  various  religious  houses,  owing  to  their  crowded 
and  unsanitary  conditions,  suffered  terribly ;  many 
of  them  were  totally  depopulated  and  never  again 
occupied ;  others  were  so  denuded  and  frightened 
that  the  ordinary  offices  of  religion  were  neglected, 
their  property  was  ruined  and  their  land  became 
unproductive.  So  few  priests  were  left  in  some 
parts  that  believers  confessed  to  one  another.  Ex- 
treme unction  was  passed  over  and  faith  allowed  as 
a  substitute. 

High  church  officials  sent  out  exhortations  to  the 
people  to  confess  sins,  to  repeat  forms  of  prayer 
and  psalms,  form  processions  and  undertake  other 

111 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

religious  services.  In  it  all  church  growth  in  the 
century  was  checked,  and  few  new  buildings  were 
erected.  Doubtless  the  people  learning  that  many 
of  the  offices  of  religion  could  be  done  by  themselves, 
and  being  taught  to  pray  directly  to  the  Heavenly 
Father,  reached  a  higher  type  of  religious  faith 
than  before. 

Besides  these  various  changes  in  church  life  the 
Black  Death  in  another  way  deeply  influenced  the 
people  toward  better  things.  A  general  uplift  of 
the  lower  classes  taking  place,  from  that  time  on- 
ward those  classes  were  never  remanded  to  so  low 
a  degree  as  before  they  had  been  compelled  to  oc- 
cupy. The  startling  death  rate  made  the  laborers 
so  decrease  that  the  call  for  work  from  those  re- 
maining was  such  that  wages  arose  to  an  unprece- 
dented price  and  even  then  the  ordinary  labor  could 
not  be  secured.  Servile  labor  almost  totally  ceased. 
Claim  for  higher  pay  was  demanded  by  the  parish 
priests,  for  along  with  the  decay  of  industries  had 
come  an  increase  in  the  cost  of  living.  Before  the 
plague  the  ordinary  pay  of  a  parish  priest  had  been 
five  marks  a  year ;  now  they  would  not  serve  for  less 
than  ten  pounds.  Money  was  then  worth  about 
twenty  times  as  much  as  now.  The  bishops  gen- 
erally refused  sympathy  to  the  parish  priests  who 
were  asking  for  higher  pay,  as  the  king  stood  re- 
lated to  the  laborers  demanding  better  wages.  By 
various  causes  the  classes  drifted  farther  apart, 
king  from  subject,  bishop  from  clergy,  land  owner 
from  peasant. 

Two   important   laws,   Provisors   and   Premuinire, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


113 


were  enacted  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  which, 
with  the  changes  in  social  life,  the  quickening  of  in- 
tellect, the  spirit  of  independence  developing,  were 
leading  to  a  new  order  of  things.  Wyclif  and 
Chaucer  and  Langland  were  near.  To  this  time 
the  baronage  and  clergy  had  worked  much  together, 
now  they  were  drifting  apart.  In  a  population  of 
three  millions  there  were  about  twenty-five  thousand 
clergy  and  these  it  was  claimed  had  one-third  of 
England's  real  estate  and  an  income  twice  as  large 
as  the  king's.  Even  among  themselves  the  clerics 
were  at  odds,  the  higher  ones  busy  in  politics  and 
in  little  else,  the  lower  shackled  by  poverty,  regu- 
lars at  swords'  points  with  the  seculars.  The  uni- 
versities complained  that  the  friars  were  lessening 
their  students,  yet  in  it  all  the  people  were  climbing 
upward  and  feeling  firmer  ground  under  their  feet. 

As  his  people  demanded  rights  when  he  asked  for 
money  Edward  granted  mitigations  of  hard  royal 
customs.  Withal  Edward  was  a  pious  prince,  for 
having  refused  peace  proposals  before  the  gates  of 
Paris,  though  urged  by  papal  legates  to  do  so,  when 
a  mighty  storm  arose  in  which  thousands  were  dy- 
ing about  him  he  flung  himself  from  his  horse  and 
with  outstretched  arms  vowed  to  the  Virgin  of 
Chartres  and  to  God  that  he  would  no  longer  reject 
such  proposals.  Then  as  peace  was  made  he  and 
John  of  France  knelt  together  on  the  platform  of 
the  church  at  Calais,  with  their  hands  on  the  Missal 
and  Paternoster. 

The  mutterings  of  the  great  movements  of 
Wyclif's  time  were  beginning  to  attract  notice. 


114  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Fault  was  again  being  found  by  Parliament  with  so 
many  places  being  filled  by  foreigners  and  the  king 
ordered  every  bishop  to  make  investigations  and  re- 
port to  the  Chancery.  The  unrest,  the  cry  for 
truth,  and  the  spirit  of  progress  were  at  last  to 
find  a  potent  voice.  Wyclif  was  in  action.  For 
twenty  years  he  had  been  lecturing,  writing,  think- 
ing, growing.  By  1368  Wyclif  was  attracting  no- 
tice by  advancing  propositions  striking  at  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  church  and  its  vast  property. 

Wyclif  was  thoroughly  educated  in  the  universi- 
ties of  western  Europe,  was  of  acute  intellect,  of 
fearless  spirit,  of  prodigious  industry,  one  of  the 
ablest  men  ever  produced  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
That  he  was  a  bold  thinker  and  able  speaker  was 
shown  by  his  lectures  to  the  Oxford  students. 
Wyclif 's  first  great  book,  sent  out  in  1368,  was  "The 
Kingdom  of  God,"  basing  his  objection  of  paying 
tribute  to  Rome  upon  the  fact  that  God  is  alone  the 
great  Ruler.  He  struck  a  national  chord  strung 
to  that  touch.  The  people  from  archbishop  to  peas- 
ant felt  this  but  had  scarcely  dared  say  so.  Then 
his  doctrine  that  relations  between  God  and  man 
were  effective  without  the  interference  of  a  priest- 
hood was  to  the  clergy  a  frightful  one.  Wyclif 
further  taught  that  the  priesthood  had  no  real 
right  to  the  vast  riches  gathered  into  its  hand,  that 
those  riches  could  be  seized  and  used  for  the  na- 
tion's needs,  and  he  adjured  the  clergy  to  dispossess 
themselves  of  it,  and  return  to  apostolic  simplicity. 

The  Convocation  cited  Wyclif  before  Bishop 
Courtenay  of  London  to  answer  the  accusation  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  115 

heresy.  Wyclif  responded  to  the  citation  at  St. 
Paul's,  a  discussion  arose,  in  the  tumult  no  trial 
could  be  given,  and  Wyclif  was  rescued  from  the 
mob  by  soldiers.  Then  a  papal  bull  was  sent  to 
the  University  of  Oxford  to  condemn  and  arrest  him 
but  he  bade  defiance  to  the  order,  boldly  asserting 
that  no  man  could  be  excommunicated  unless  first 
his  conduct  was  such  that  he  did  that  for  himself. 
He  claimed  that  ecclesiastical  questions  and  the 
clergy  should  be  subject  to  the  civil  courts,  in  this 
having  the  mass  of  Englishmen  with  him.  He  did 
obey,  however,  the  summons  of  the  archbishop  to 
appear  at  Lambeth  palace  to  answer  accusations, 
but  a  sharp  word  from  court  stayed  proceedings, 
and  a  London  mob  broke  up  the  primate's  course. 
It  was  now  1381,  four  years  from  the  conflict 
with  the  bishop  of  London.  During  this  time  had 
occurred  the  Peasants'  Revolt,  for  which  historians 
have  been  unable  to  make  Wyclif  responsible,  though 
many  at  that  time  thought  he  was.  He  denied 
transubstantiation,  the  dogma  of  the  real  presence 
of  the  blood  and  body  of  Christ  in  the  consecrated 
bread  and  wine  of  the  eucharist.  By  denying  this 
cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Romish  church,  he  was 
entering  the  thin  tip  of  the  wedge  which,  driven  home 
by  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  a  century  and  a  half 
later,  was  to  separate  forever  the  northern  nations 
from  the  false  tenets  sent  out  from  Rome  and  from 
the  incubus  of  the  papacy.  It  was  a  mighty  step 
forward  for  Wyclif,  and  a  dangerous  one.  It  was 
the  baldest,  terriblest  heresy.  For  heresy  of  vastly 
less  moment  men  had  already  scorched  and  died  at 


116  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  stake.  One  cannot  but  marvel  at  the  supreme 
bravery  of  the  man.  But  he  knew  he  was  right. 
Court  and  hierarchy  were  against  him.  The  uni- 
versity now  condemned  him.  But  to  all  he  answered 
that  they  might  show  his  teachings  to  be  false  if 
they  were  able. 

But  he  was  not  to  stop  here  in  his  teachings.  It 
was  not  long  before  he  denied  pardons  as  made  by 
the  clergy,  also  indulgences  and  absolutions;  fur- 
ther, he  repudiated  utterly  pilgrimages  to  saints' 
shrines,  the  worship  of  their  images  and  of  the 
saints  themselves.  He  did  these  things  by  an  ap- 
peal to  the  English  people  in  a  series  of  tracts 
written  in  the  vernacular,  the  earliest  use  of  it  made 
by  a  master.  By  it  he  practically  became  the 
founder  of  English  prose.  It  was  a  brave  attitude 
to  take  toward  the  powers  of  the  hierarchy,  revolu- 
tionary toward  the  traditions  wrought  into  the  very 
life  of  the  church,  and  subversive  of  the  faith 
trusted  in  for  centuries.  Again  cited  before  a 
synod,  that  of  the  Earthquake,  at  London,  he  stayed 
away,  but  touched  with  supreme  irony  a  union  of 
the  prelates  and  monks  against  him  with  "Herod 
and  Pontius  Pilate  are  made  friends  to-day." 
Though  in  failing  health  he  begged  of  the  king  to 
let  him  prove  publicly  the  truth  of  these  new  teach- 
ings. He  also  asked  that  all  religious  vows  which 
were  such  a  burden  to  many  might  be  suppressed, 
that  tithes  might  be  given  to  the  poor  and  the 
clergy  supported  by  the  free  offerings  of  the  people. 
He  urged  that  the  statutes  of  Provisors  and 
Premunire  should  be  enforced  against  papal  impo- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


117 


sitions,  that  no  churches  should  hold  secular  office, 
and  that  imprisonment  under  the  order  of  excom- 
munication might  have  an  end. 

The  man  was  growing  old  and  feeble.  Oxford 
was  forced  to  expel  him  from  among  her  teachers. 
A  quiet  living,  Lutterworth,  was  given  him,  but  even 
now  his  grandest  work  for  the  religious  life  of  the 
English  people  was  to  be  done.  That  was  to  give 
them  a  translation  of  the  Bible  from  the  classical 
languages  into  their  own  tongue.  Helped  by  able 
fellow  laborers,  by  Nicholas  of  Hereford,  and  when 
he  was  imprisoned  at  Rome,  aided  by  Purvey,  an 
able  student,  Wyclif  persevered  until  the  book  was 
all  put  into  the  speech  of  the  common  people.  Of 
the  New  Testament  it  is  known  that  Matthew  and 
Mark  were  done  by  Wyclif's  own  hand.  With  this 
mighty  power  to  use  he  was  making  great  headway 
in  bringing  to  the  people  such  opportunities  to 
think  and  act  for  themselves  as  never  had  been 
granted  them. 

To  help  forward  the  truth  he  instituted  a  method 
of  work  that  under  the  impulse  of  the  man  and  the 
times  was  most  effective.  He  organized  a  band  of 
"poor  preachers"  to  go  out  among  the  people  of 
the  country,  these  itinerants  taking  with  them  the 
new  Bible  to  teach  and  preach,  somewhat  as  the 
mendicant  friars  had  done  till  indolence  and  wealth 
ruined  them.  Wyclif's  "poor  preachers"  went  clad 
in  the  russet  garments  of  the  English  peasants,  had 
no  pay,  lived  on  the  gifts  of  the  poor  people  among 
whom  they  went,  and  preaching  and  teaching  the 
new  principles  of  the  reformer  everywhere  met  with 


118  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  heartiest  welcome.  In  the  growing  municipali- 
ties, like  Oxford,  London,  Bristol,  Leicester,  and 
others,  the  doctrines  of  Wyclif  had  deepest  hold. 
His  work  was  not  to  be  narrowed  by  a  sect.  The 
queen  was  a  princess  of  Bohemia,  and  partly  by 
her  help  the  new  doctrine  was  carried  to  her  native 
land  to  touch  another  Wyclif,  John  Huss,  whose 
teachings  of  the  new  way  were  to  shake  that  king- 
dom for  a  generation,  but  finally  to  be  drowned  in 
the  blood  of  its  leaders  and  believers. 

The  Lollards,  who  figured  so  prominently  in  the 
age  of  Wyclif,  were  in  their  name  and  origin,  if  not 
in  their  labors,  an  obscure  folk.  London  was  the 
center  of  their  activities,  while  the  midland  towns 
were  also  strongly  given  to  their  teachings.  Had 
some  great  leader  arisen  after  Wyclif,  like  Luther 
or  Wesley,  it  is  possible  that  vastly  more  would  have 
come  of  the  movement.  As  Henry  Fourth  ascended 
the  bloody  throne  the  alarm  caused  by  the  sub- 
versive Lollards  grew  more  stirring.  They  now 
dared  an  appeal  to  Parliament  setting  forth  their 
opinions  and  their  remonstrances  against  the  con- 
ditions about  them.  In  their  zeal  they  declared  that 
since  the  church  had  yielded  its  temporalities  to 
Rome,  faith,  hope  and  charity  had  left  her  com- 
munion. They  strongly  protested  against  the 
Romish  priesthood,  celibacy,  and  transubstantia- 
tion,  declared  that  exorcism  and  necromancy  were 
more  trusted  in  than  religion,  urged  that  cleric  and 
secular  power  should  not  be  held  by  the  same  man, 
nor  should  men  go  on  pilgrimages,  offer  prayers  and 
oblations  to  the  images  or  to  the  dead,  and  uttered 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  119 

their  remonstrance  against  auricular  confession  and 
war  and  capital  punishment,  as  well  as  against  un- 
necessary trades  like  that  of  goldsmiths  and  sword 
cutlers. 

In  1401  the  famous  Statute  of  Heresy  was  en- 
acted by  Parliament.  The  bishops  were  given  a 
free  hand  to  arrest  and  imprison  all  preachers  of 
heresy,  all  schoolmasters  affected  with  heretical 
teachings,  all  owners  and  writers  of  heretical  books, 
and  if  after  recantation  they  relapsed,  they  were  to 
be  turned  over  to  the  civil  power  and  burned  on  a 
high  place  before  the  people.  Now  came  a  startling 
epoch  in  English  history.  William  Sautre,  priest 
of  St.  Osyth  parish,  London,  having  once  recanted 
came  voluntarily  before  the  Parliament  to  defend 
what  he  had  once  recanted.  Being  accounted  a  re- 
lapse, he  was  arrested,  convicted,  and  being  turned 
over  to  the  civil  authorities  was  burned  at  the  stake. 
William  Thorpe,  a  priest,  issued  writings  of  such 
a  nature,  a  violent  attack  upon  the  established  or- 
der, that  he  was  accused  of  being  a  Lollard,  yet  his 
teachings  were  not  definite  enough  to  send  him  to 
the  stake  but  only  to  prison.  These  writings  be- 
came so  popular  that  in  their  wide  distribution  they 
were  called  "Thorpe's  Testament."  As  the  teach- 
ings of  Wyclif  were  getting  current  among  the  stu- 
dents of  Oxford  it  was  ordered  that  any  one  tainted 
with  those  teachings  should  be  expelled. 

The  opinions  of  Wyclif,  selected  from  his  books 
in  large  numbers  were  condemned  in  full  congrega- 
tion at  Oxford,  and  when  further  to  suppress  Lol- 
lardism  the  archbishop  essayed  to  visit  Oxford,  the 


120  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

university  refused  to  extend  an  invitation  to  him, 
pleading  papal  privilege,  but  the  king  exasperated 
by  such  a  refuge  compelled  an  invitation.  The 
heads  of  the  institution  resigned  and  the  students 
threatened  to  leave.  New  faculties  were  elected 
and  the  pope  annulled  previous  privileges.  Still 
more  of  Wyclif's  teachings  to  the  number  of  three 
hundred  were  denounced  as  heretical  and  also  cen- 
sured by  the  archbishops  and  pope.  The  arch- 
bishop begged  that  the  bones  of  Wyclif  might  be 
dug  from  consecrated  ground,  but  this  the  pope  re- 
fused, it  being  the  infamous  order  later  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Constance  to  do  that. 

Besides  Wyclif  and  the  Lollards  the  Peasants' 
Revolt  helped  to  make  memorable  the  latter  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  If  a  careful  scrutiny  is 
given  of  that  movement,  several  causes  appear  which 
doubtless  help  to  explain  it.  Even  those  lower 
classes  had  begun  to  think.  Thinking  human  beings 
are  not  content  in  servitude.  Masters  have  always 
dreaded  thinking  slaves.  Modern  slavery  would  not 
permit  its  servitors  to  learn  letters. 

The  spirit  of  democracy  aroused  and  fostered  by 
a  wider  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  another  active 
means  leading  to  that  revolt.  Modern  democracy  is 
largely  a  result  of  the  teachings  of  the  Galilean 
Peasant.  As  those  teachings  were  learned  by  the 
English,  giving  glimpses  of  human  rights,  there  arose 
a  spirit  of  assertion,  consonant,  too,  with  the  old 
Teutonic  claim  to  man's  freedom  which  had  under 
the  feudal  rule  so  long  been  denied  the  lowly. 

Many  of  the  small  holdings  of  the  people  had  been 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

obtained  by  the  religious  houses,  the  monks  when 
people  were  dying  soliciting  property  for  their 
houses.  Many  of  the  nobility,  also,  by  the  surpris- 
ing habits  of  litigation  into  which  the  people  fell, 
and  by  the  subtile  courses  of  the  lawyers,  became 
the  devourers  of  the  smaller  allotments  of  the  lower 
classes.  Still  another  very  forceful  cause  of  unrest 
and  most  repulsive  to  violence  was  the  great  burden 
of  taxes  and  the  remorseless  way  the  collectors  ex- 
acted them  of  the  poverty-smitten  people.  Be- 
tween the  king's  wars  and  the  pope's  extravagances 
property  was  ground  to  a  very  thin  substance. 
The  privileges  of  the  upper  classes  both  in  state  and 
church  were  in  such  contrast  to  the  condition  of  the 
lower  classes  as  to  be  well-nigh  unbearable. 

And  yet  much  all  along  had  been  done  for  the 
poor  and  needy  in  a  systematic  way.  A  sick  fund 
was  made  a  national  concern  for  the  aged,  or  for 
ill  paupers,  the  landlords  paying  a  tenth  of  their 
produce,  in  some  instances,  into  collegiate  churches 
for  the  sick,  the  monks  becoming  the  almoners  for 
such  charity  funds.  Royal  bands  often  poured 
out  money  bounteously  to  meet  indigent  needs.  A 
special  ward  was  held  open  in  the  monasteries  for 
tramps  who  were  kept  in  it  over  night  and  the  next 
day,  well  fed,  departed  to  find  work  or  continue 
tramping.  Even  the  Crusades  were  a  help  to  the 
poor,  for  with  the  turbulent  spirits  away,  the 
clergy  could  better  carry  on  their  peaceful  work. 
For  some  of  the  pastors  were  always  preaching 
emancipation  seeking  manumission  of  serfs  and 
slaves  at  the  death  bed  of  the  nobility  as  a  merit  in 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

heaven,  the  clergy  often  setting  an  example  of  these 
things  in  their  own  estates.  The  Crusaders  return- 
ing with  enlarged  views  could  appreciate  the  good 
work  thus  done  by  the  clerics,  and  uphold  it. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

By  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Crusades 
had  run  their  course  for  two  hundred  years.  As  in 
all  great  world  movements  there  was  a  blending  of 
good  and  evil  in  them.  To  rescue  the  city  and  sepul- 
cher  of  Jesus  from  the  hands  of  another  religious 
faith  was  the  core  of  the  movement,  that  being  the 
burden  of  Peter  the  Hermit's  preaching  and  of  Ur- 
ban at  the  Council  of  Clermont.  Plenary  absolution 
and  indulgence  were  granted  those  going  and  many 
other  ecclesiastical  immunities.  No  wonder  in  so 
rude  and  warlike  an  age,  when  hardly  a  man's  hand 
was  stainless  of  another  man's  blood,  that  the  promise 
of  remission  of  sins  in  this  life  and  certain  felicity  in 
the  other  were  strong  incentives  to  go  on  a  crusade. 
If  primarily  a  religious  movement,  pillage,  war,  ad- 
venture, sightseeing,  were  not  forgotten.  Edward, 
before  coming  to  the  kingship,  evidently  thought  he 
could  do  his  father  good  service  by  leading  turbulent 
spirits  out  of  the  kingdom  to  use  their  energies 
against  the  Saracens.  To  raise  money  for  this  cru- 
sade a  tenth  of  church  revenues  for  three  years  was 
granted  and  one-thirtieth  of  all  the  goods  of  the 
laity,  rich  and  poor.  The  pope  and  clergy  entered 
with  much  energy  into  the  purpose  of  the  Crusades, 
declaring  inviolate  the  property  or  province  of  one 
on  a  crusade,  using  excommunication  and  other 
church  weapons  in  their  defense.  If  one  taking  vows 

to  go  backed  out,  he  was  refused  admittance  to  any 

123 


184  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

church,  and  interdicts  were  extended  over  his  prop- 
erty and  lands.  Such  a  one  could,  however,  escape 
by  heavy  penance,  many  churches  and  other  religious 
houses  being  built  by  those  delinquents. 

Akin  to  the  crusade  in  spirit  was  the  passion  for 
pilgrimages.  Rome,  after  Jerusalem,  was  the  city 
most  attractive  for  devotees,  many  men  and  women 
counting  greatly  on  the  religious  merit  gained  for 
both  worlds  by  having  visited  the  holy  city,  for  hav- 
ing seen  the  pope  and  received  his  blessing,  and  for 
worshiping  and  praying  at  its  holy  places.  Just  at 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  a  remarkable 
tide  of  such  pilgrimages  set  towards  Rome,  people 
flocking  there  by  millions.  The  English  people  were 
not  behind  others.  By  such  pilgrimages  the  papacy 
was  magnified  in  two  ways  at  least,  money  being  so 
freely  given  that  priests  stood  at  the  altars  with 
rakes  to  pull  it  uncounted  into  the  coffers.  Then 
these  devotees  would  return  to  their  home  lands, 
happy  with  the  sense  of  the  papal  blessing  or  other 
favor,  to  be  strenuous  supporters  of  His  Holi- 
ness. 

But  most  pilgrimages  were  not  as  pretentious  as 
those  to  Rome  or  Jerusalem.  The  tombs  of  specially 
devout  saints  or  of  some  renowned  martyr,  the  cell  of 
a  noted  anchorite,  or  shrine  of  peculiar  sanctity,  at- 
tracted multitudes.  The  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Wal- 
singham  was  frequented  by  thousands  to  worship  and 
pray,  or  else  to  secure  healing  of  their  maladies. 
From  the  start  Becket's  tomb  at  Canterbury  became 
a  place  to  which  the  devout,  the  curious  and  fashion- 
able crowded,  and  the  widely  read  Canterbury  Tales 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  125 

are  of  a  party  representative,  it  may  be  supposed, 
of  English  life  going  on  a  pilgrimage  to  that  tomb. 
It  was  the  plan  and  study  of  the  monks  to  secure 
sacred  and  remunerative  relics.  To  obtain  such 
relics  even  violence,  broken  heads  and  bleeding 
wounds  were  given  and  received  over  the  dead  body 
of  some  one  likely  to  bring  pilgrims  and  raoney  to  a 
religious  house. 

When,  in  1413,  Henry  Fifth  came  to  the  throne, 
he  threw  aside  the  companions  of  his  youthful  ex- 
uberance and  undertook  to  lead  a  clean  and  pious 
life.  The  day  of  his  father's  death  he  spent  in  pri- 
vacy and  prayer  with  his  chosen  confessor,  a  recluse 
of  Westminster.  He  appealed  to  the  clergy  and  the 
laity  to  show  their  Christian  activity  and  character. 
But  the  fearful  Lollards  were  still  troublesome.  The 
earl  of  Shaftsbury  having  headed  a  revolt  that  had 
some  relation  with  Lollardry,  was  captured  and  be- 
headed, and  the  clergy  of  London  in  procession,  sing- 
ing psalms  and  thanksgivings,  met  the  gory  head.  A 
truly  militant  then  arose  among  them,  Sir  John  Old- 
castle,  Lord  Cobham,  and  placards  were  posted  on 
the  church  doors  of  London,  saying  the  Lollards 
would  maintain  their  opinions  by  force  of  arms.  Sir 
John  was  a  brave  soldier,  was  liked  by  the  king,  and 
was  influential  in  London  and  adjoining  regions. 
Being  accused  of  various  church  delinquencies  he  was 
brought  before  the  archbishop,  when  he  declared  that 
he  would  seek  absolution  from  none  but  God,  point- 
edly disclaimed  transubstantiation,  penance,  confes- 
sion and  worship  of  the  cross,  said  the  pope  was 
Anti-Christ,  that  the  real  successor  of  St.  Peter  was 


126  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  man  that  was  most  holy,  and  loudly  declaimed 
against  the  prelates  and  his  judges.  Thrown  into 
the  Tower  he  escaped,  called  his  friends  and  started 
a  rebellion  which  was  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the  king's 
activity  in  dispersing  the  rabble  at  Giles'  Field.  A 
fugitive  to  Wales,  Oldcastle  headed  another  band  of 
armed  men,  was  defeated,  and  finally  captured  and 
suffered  for  treason.  Again,  in  1414,  the  Commons 
moved  to  sequestrate  the  temporalities  of  the  church, 
and  a  counter  accusation  was  made  against  the  Lol- 
lards that  they  were  holding  meetings  to  destroy  the 
church,  the  king,  and  the  laws  of  England. 

To  the  famous  Council  of  Constance  the  English 
church  sent  twenty-one  delegates.  The  spirit  of 
reformation  was  in  the  very  air,  but  the  Council, 
thinking  it  would  come  only  through  regular  church 
channels,  were  ready  to  declare  that  what  was  not 
exactly  in  conformity  to  church  ways  to  be  heresy 
and  its  advocates  to  deserve  death.  Hence,  John 
Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  though  coming  to  the 
Council  under  the  safe  conduct  of  the  German  em- 
peror, were  burned  as  heretics.  A  formal  condemna- 
tion of  Wyclif's  teachings  was  made  and  the  bones 
of  the  mighty  reformer  were  ordered  dug  up  and 
burned.  Even  then,  in  England,  the  spirit  of  reform 
was  operative,  since  the  University  of  Oxford  under 
direction  of  the  king  sent  the  Council  of  Constance  a 
remonstrance  against  indulgences  being  hawked 
about,  urging  that  excessive  fees  should  not  be 
charged  by  the  Roman  Curia,  nor  benefices  conferred 
in  commendam,  denouncing  the  habits  of  nepotism, 
pluralities,  non-residences,  intrusion  of  alien  incum- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


127 


bents,  exemption  of  monasteries,  cleric  worldliness 
and  immoralities. 

Henry  Fifth  in  many  ways  showed  a  devout,  pro- 
gressive mind,  pointing  the  road  to  Henry  Eighth 
as  well  as  preparing  the  people  for  the  Reformation. 
But  he  missed  the  opportunity  himself  of  a  great  re- 
form, for  the  Lollards  furnished  what  might  have 
been  the  groundwork  of  a  deep,  fruitful  reformation 
had  he  allied  himself  with  them. 

By  the  statute  of  heresy  and  the  death  of  Salis- 
bury and  of  Oldcastle,  the  prominence  of  the  Lol- 
lards gave  way.  But  as  late  as  1449,  the  "Bible 
Men,"  as  they  dubbed  the  Lollard  preachers,  were  so 
aggressive  as  to  call  forth  Bishop  Pecock's  book 
against  them,  "Overmuch  Blaming  of  the  Clergy." 
Indeed,  Lollardry  was  never  wholly  suppressed  and  it 
helps  to  explain  the  facility  with  which  the  people 
accepted  the  separation  from  Rome  under  Henry 
Eighth,  and  the  hearty  acceptance  of  Luther's  teach- 
ings from  Germany.  Hatred  of  the  friars  and  their 
foundations  was  gradually  fanned  into  a  flame. 

From  the  Conquest  onward  there  was  a  most  un- 
satisfactory condition  of  the  monasteries.  What 
revival  of  religious  purity  and  earnestness  was 
brought  in  by  the  priors  and  abbots  whom  the  Con- 
queror introduced  from  Normandy,  did  not  long  per- 
sist. At  one  time  and  another  many  orders  of  friars 
had  entered  England,  usually  doing  noble  service  for 
a  while  and  then  degenerating.  Their  houses,  grown 
rich,  led  to  indolence  that  breeded  vice,  and  laziness 
which  led  to  deterioration.  The  Carthusians,  coming 
after  the  Conquest,  had  vows  in  accordance  with  what 


128  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

was  thought  necessary  and  marked  by  great  severity. 
They  wore  sackcloth,  never  ate  any  flesh,  fasted  Fri- 
days on  bread  and  water,  ate  alone  in  their  cells  save 
on  special  holidays,  kept  perpetual  silence,  none  but 
officers  leaving  the  house,  and  no  women  being  per- 
mitted to  attend  their  services. 

Not  long  after  the  Conquest  came  the  Cistercians, 
the  order  being  the  result  of  an  Englishman's  intense 
purpose  to  reach  a  better  way  of  monastic  living. 
Stephen  Harding,  a  monk,  went  to  Rome  and  return- 
ing entered  a  Benedictine  monastery  at  Molesme, 
France,  but  finding  things  there  not  in  accordance 
with  their  rule,  he  raised  a  controversy  yet  was  un- 
able to  have  the  monastery  as  a  whole  come  to  his 
views.  However,  the  abbot  and  eighteen  monks  with- 
drew and  going  with  Harding  to  Cistercium,  in 
Chalons,  were  encouraged  by  the  bishop  in  setting  up 
an  abbey.  In  time  Harding  became  abbot  and  the 
new  order  as  a  revival  and  reform  of  Christianity 
greatly  flourished.  In  the  times  of  Henry  First 
and  Stephen,  England  was  stirred  most  profoundly 
in  its  religious  life,  a  movement  of  devout  passion 
taking  place  similar  to  those  under  Wyclif  and 
Wesley. 

Other  orders  also  stirred  the  English  life,  some 
coming  from  the  continent,  others  organized  on 
English  soil.  The  famous  Franciscans  and  Do- 
minicans, like  the  other  orders,  perpetuated  them- 
selves in  rich  foundations  and  have  continued  to  the 
present  day.  But  all  of  these  orders  have  separated 
widely  from  their  original  enthusiasm  and  success. 

These  conditions  made  the  monks  and  friars  offen- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  129 

sive  to  a  large  share  of  the  English  people.  By  the 
time  of  Henry  Fifth,  their  offense  began  smelling  to 
Heaven.  Even  their  hospitals  and  almshouses  were 
gradually  abandoned  by  these  religious  men.  If 
manuscripts  were  produced  they  were  for  display,  not 
for  use.  Owing  to  their  immunities  and  riches  the 
abbots  became  ostentatious,  having  large  retinues 
when  they  went  abroad.  To  many  of  the  great 
houses  were  outlying  manors,  chantries  and  cells, 
which  often  became  places  of  scandal. 

A  better  reputation  belonged  to  the  nunneries, 
though  the  luxurious  living  of  prioresses  sometimes 
caused  dissatisfaction,  while  now  and  then  the  quar- 
relsome nuns  were  thrust  into  a  dark  room  until 
they  could  learn  to  live  in  peace.  The  establishments 
were  not  so  large  as  those  for  men,  were  obscure  and 
less  influential.  The  nuns  were  teachers,  the  con- 
vents were  schools  for  girls,  boarders  were  taken  into 
them,  and  charity  was  given.  On  the  whole  they 
were  places  of  peace  and  refinement  where  the  re- 
ligious life  as  then  comprehended  and  practiced  found 
place  for  development. 

The  treatment  of  the  Jews  by  the  English  in  those 
centuries  forms  a  curious  chapter  in  the  religious 
life.  The  well-known  favor  shown  them  by  the  Con- 
queror and  by  Wiliam  Rufus  brought  them  from  the 
continent  in  great  numbers  to  push  money  affairs 
with  their  accustomed  zeal  and  success.  They  were 
permitted  to  build  synagogues  for  their  own  worship, 
but  they  were  always  treated  with  aversion  for  their 
religious  views  and  with  suspicion  and  hatred  for  the 
modes  of  their  financial  dealings.  By  the  Christians 


130  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

it  was  considered  wrong  in  those  times  to  take  interest 
on  money,  they  confounding  that  with  the  term  usury 
in  the  Bible,  but  the  Jews  had  no  such  scruples. 
They  readily  took  interest,  often  owing  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  situation  or  the  passing  need  of  the  bor- 
rower, taking  high  rates  not  only  as  interest  but  in 
those  unsettled  times  as  security  of  the  loan.  So 
great  was  the  dislike  of  them  that  a  riot  broke  out 
against  them  in  York  while  King  Richard  was  ab- 
sent on  a  military  expedition,  and  five  hundred  of 
them,  taking  refuge  and  defending  themselves  in  a 
fortification,  offered  to  surrender  if  their  lives  were 
pledged  them,  but  this  poor  pity  being  denied,  the 
men  like  the  Jewish  zealots  at  Masada,  Palestine,  de- 
stroyed their  wives  and  children  and  then  killed 
themselves.  Finally  in  the  reign  of  Edward  First, 
1290,  they  were  totally  banished  from  England.  To 
the  number  of  fifteen  thousand  they  were  sent  to  the 
continent,  the  king  putting  his  hand  on  one-fifteenth 
of  their  property.  A  few  turned  Christians  to 
escape  banishment,  but  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
friars  and  king  their  number  was  small.  As  the  poor 
refugees  were  being  conveyed  away  they  were  plun- 
dered and  killed  by  the  shipmasters ;  and  thus  robbed, 
banished,  murdered,  their  treatment  helped  to  close 
one  of  the  saddest  episodes  of  brutality,  ignorance, 
and  mistaken  zeal  in  those  backward  centuries. 

Hardly  less  brutal  treatment  was  accorded  the  ma- 
jority of  the  English  nation,  the  slaves  and  serfs. 
In  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  many  who  had  once  been 
freemen  became  by  the  disasters  of  war,  poverty, 
sickness  or  other  misfortunes,  thralls  or  slaves,  churls 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  131 

or  serfs.  The  Norman  Conquest  gave  slight  change 
for  the  better  to  those  classes,  while  the  church  all 
along  had  a  good-will  influence  among  those  lowly 
Englishmen.  The  Magna  Carta  makes  one  little 
mention  of  those  lowly  classes,  that  a  villein  should 
not  be  amerced  so  as  to  lose  his  wainage,  his  cart  and 
plows.  Their  gradual  enfranchisement  came  in  the 
universal  progress  of  the  nation  toward  better  things 
more  than  by  law  or  legislative  enactment. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

The  decay  of  Feudalism  going  on  through  this 
period  was  allowing  benefits  to  the  masses  of  English- 
men, permitting  them  to  learn  more  of  the  religious 
life  and  to  cultivate  it  better,  for  in  its  flower,  feudal- 
ism left  few  men  with  any  considerable  rights. 
Feudalism  did  not  prevail  in  England  till  the  Norman 
Conquest.  The  theory  and  practice  were  that  every 
one  holding  land  did  so  from  one  superior  to  him. 
Thus  the  whole  land  belonged  to  the  king,  the  lands 
of  the  barons  and  lords  were  held  by  them  through 
permission  of  the  sovereign,  each  subordinate  land- 
holder by  permission  of  earl,  baron,  or  other  overlord. 
The  superior  could  control  the  marriage  of  the 
daughters  of  the  lower  order,  could  exact  great  sums 
at  their  weddings  so  that,  in  fact,  the  women  were 
sold  and  often  in  such  a  way  to  the  highest  bidder 
that  it  was  shameful.  In  a  similar  way  money  was 
exacted  when  the  son  was  knighted.  The  completed 
military  service  was  also  demanded  and  rendered. 

The  spirit  of  feudalism  was  not  patriarchal  or  even 
patronizing,  it  was  mostly  brutal.  The  reverence 
claimed  for  woman,  though  confined  to  those  of  high 
degree,  probably  aided  in  the  gradual  elevation  of  all 
women.  The  worship  of  the  Virgin  was  also  a  potent 
force  in  woman's  favor.  One  good  thing  of  feudal- 
ism, as  distinct  from  chivalry,  was  that  it  laid  the 
care  of  the  aged,  poor  and  infirm  upon  those  above 
them.  On  Monday,  Thursday  and  at  other  times, 

132 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  133 

the  sovereigns  set  the  example  of  ministering  service 
by  washing  the  feet  of  the  aged  indigent,  and  also  in 
other  ways.  This  show  of  a  lowly,  Christlike  work 
was  followed  by  certain  high-born  men  and  women 
in  deeds  of  beneficence  and  kindly  human  sym- 
pathy. 

Free  thought  and  wider  education  were  also  helping 
on  the  death  of  feudalism.  Then,  too,  the  teaching 
of  equality  by  the  preachers,  the  leveling  tenets  of 
the  church,  and  the  democracy  of  the  Scriptures, 
though  poorly  comprehended,  were  yet  doing  their 
noble  work.  Also  the  poems  of  Chaucer,  of  Gower 
and  Langland,  as  well  as  the  homely  adages  and  bal- 
lads of  the  people,  were  pregnant  with  the  seeds  of 
death  to  a  system  no  longer  endurable. 

By  the  closing  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  feu- 
dalism may  be  said  to  have  totally  disappeared  from 
England.  Edward  Fourth  had  overridden  the 
feudal  baronage  and  the  feudal  power  of  the  church 
heirarchy.  Parliament  by  its  growing  powers, 
especially  in  the  commons,  had  aided  the  change. 
Men  were  no  longer  speechless  under  ecclesiastical 
fears.  But  with  these  changes,  and  nothing  wholly 
able  to  take  the  place  in  society  of  those  aborted 
forces,  the  scene  presented  is  most  appalling.  De- 
bauchery marked  all  classes  from  king  to  serf,  rapine 
made  all  property  unsafe,  cruelty  dragged  a  trail  of 
blood  across  both  Roses,  deceit  and  duplicity  were  the 
common  ways  of  dealing.  The  remorseless  way  of 
kings,  princes  and  nobles  in  supplanting  one  another, 
in  confiscations,  in  bloody  murders,  were  those  of 
gigantic  robbers.  Warwick  was  a  monster  of  lust 


134  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

and  cruelty  and  for  a  time  Edward  Fourth  was  his 
creature  in  these  excesses. 

Another  means  for  helping  forward  the  people  in 
the  less  spectacular  way  of  church  life  was  the  guilds. 
They  existed  in  the  remote  Anglo-Saxon  life,  but  by 
the  fourteenth  century  they  had  grown  to  such  num- 
bers as  to  be  found  in  every  town  of  importance. 
The  merchants  seem  to  have  been  earliest  and  most 
active  in  forming  guilds,  and  were  followed  by 
artisans,  laborers,  and  others  who  saw  the  benefits  in 
such  organizations.  It  was  partly  an  assertion  of 
rights  fostered  by  the  religious  insight  deepening  in 
those  years,  and  by  the  independent  feeling  becoming 
more  and  more  active.  If  the  guilds  were  mostly 
among  the  laymen  still  they  were  in  pleasing  partici- 
pation with  religious  festivals  and  processions. 
They  greatly  encouraged  religious  pageants,  such, 
for  instance,  as  represented  scenes  of  the  Bible,  and 
later  the  mystery  plays  were  mostly  under  their  aus- 
pices. These  plays,  based  on  religious  subjects  and 
designed  to  teach  the  people  the  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity, formed  a  large  part  of  such  teachings  attain- 
able by  the  masses.  Towns,  as  Chester,  York,  Bev- 
erly and  Coventry,  became  noted  places  for  their  pro- 
duction. The  priests  usually  wrote  the  plays  and 
often  were  the  actors  under  the  patronage  and  with 
the  aid  of  the  guilds.  In  one  procession  at  a  mystery 
play  as  many  as  ninety-six  crafts  joined.  Such 
pageants  would  sometimes  last  three  days,  being  so 
conducted  through  the  streets  that  quite  a  distinct 
outline  of  Old  Testament  scenes  and  New  Testament 
teachings  would  be  delineated. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  135 

Besides  this  purpose  the  guilds  had  a  pleasing 
charitable  object,  since  they  usually  made  provision 
for  those  suffering  from  various  human  infirmities 
which,  owing  to  bad  sanitation  and  ignorance  of  med- 
ical practice,  were  more  prevalent  than  now.  The 
guild  of  Corpus  Christi,  York,  provided  eight  beds 
for  poor  strangers  and  hired  a  woman  to  attend 
them.  In  some  guilds  payment  was  made  in  time  of 
health,  then  if  sickness  or  want  came,  certain  sums 
were  given  to  those  in  need.  In  other  guilds  provi- 
sion was  made  for  repairing  roads,  town  walls  or 
bridges.  Church  repairs  claimed  the  attention  of 
some  guilds  while  free  schools  and  schoolmasters  were 
furnished  by  others. 

That  the  object  was  high  and  the  practice  en- 
nobling can  be  seen  by  the  expulsion  of  those  failing 
in  morality,  industry,  or  in  religious  duty.  Among 
the  obligations  taken  were  to  pray  that  the  living 
might  be  worthy  to  win  God's  fatherhood  and  that 
the  dead  might  have  their  torments  lightened. 
Prayer  and  services  in  the  churches  formed  an  im- 
portant part  of  their  duties.  On  some  fast  day  they 
would  pass  in  great  procession  with  banners  and 
hymns  to  the  church,  dressed  in  their  peculiar  uni- 
form, attracting  vast  attention  along  the  quaint 
street.  For  more  than  three  centuries  the  miracle 
plays  and  guilds  were  continued.  In  1388  Parlia- 
ment ordered  returns  to  be  made  of  all  the  guilds  in 
the  kingdom,  of  their  condition,  charter,  property 
and  other  matters. 

The  schools  in  England,  as  found  by  the  Normans 
connected  with  the  churches  and  monasteries,  were 


136  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

carried  on  with  hardly  more  change  than  to  improve 
them  under  the  devoted  and  more  learned  clerics  in- 
troduced from  the  continent  by  the  Conqueror  and 
his  immediate  successors.  The  three-fold  course  of 
study,  called  the  trivium,  consisted  of  Latin,  Logic 
and  Rhetoric.  Later  the  course  was  broadened  to 
the  quadvirium,  a  four-fold  course,  these  being  the 
science  of  arithmetic,  or  numbers,  geometry,  includ- 
ing geography ;  music,  including  harmony  with  nota- 
tion, astronomy,  the  Ptolemaic  system  being  followed, 
with  astrology,  though  this  latter  was  finally  given 
up.  The  diocesan  schools  occupied  the  field  alone 
for  some  time,  although  the  broader  foundations  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  at  length  won  precedence. 
Still  others  were  founded,  as  that  in  Rotherham  by 
Rotherham  in  his  native  town.  In  this  college,  in 
addition  to  the  course  leading  to  the  priesthood,  was 
one  for  teaching  those  not  inclined  to  the  clerical 
course  in  mechanical  arts,  writing  and  arithmetic  and 
kindred  secular  studies.  It  continued  to  the  time  of 
Edward  Sixth.  The  name  of  Wykeman,  bishop  of 
Winchester,  is  fragrant  among  students,  for  with 
his  great  wealth  he  founded  a  school  as  early  as 
1366,  and  the  St.  Mary's  for  poor  boys  in  1373, 
and  fourteen  years  later  the  New  College  at  Oxford. 
In  this  were  provisions  for  two  hundred  pupils  from 
the  lowest  grades  of  study  to  the  highest.  Besides 
these  he  founded  other  schools  as  feeders  for  the  New 
College  and  on  this  account  is  claimed  as  the  founder 
of  the  public  school  system  of  England. 

The  origin  of  Oxford  University  is  obscure  but 
several  schools  at  that  place  doubtless  of  church  o£ 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  137 

monastic  founding,  were  early  established.  The 
chantry  school  of  St.  Frideswide  has  sometimes 
borne  the  honor  of  beginning  the  university,  but 
probably  it  must  share  that  honor  with  others.  By 
the  early  part  of  the  thirteen  century  Oxford  had 
gained  a  first  place  in  England.  No  delightful  pic- 
ture is  preserved  since  students  were  ill  housed  in 
the  basest  lodgings,  along  the  filthy  lanes  of  a 
medieval  town,  subject  to  poor  foods,  to  sickness  and 
other  causes  of  squalor.  They  were  given  to  drink- 
ing, quarreling,  gambling.  Frequent  riots  took 
place,  a  favorite  deed  being  to  wreck  the  houses  of 
the  Jews.  Rivalry  between  the  north  and  Scots  and 
south  or  Kentish  men,  led  to  squabbles  sometimes  end- 
ing fatally,  the  head  of  the  University  and  the 
Mayor  of  the  town  often  being  put  to  their  wits' 
end  to  keep  order. 

But  out  of  such  untoward  conditions  and  such  a 
hodge-podge  of  study  and  violence,  of  vice  and 
crime,  came  many  noble  scholars  and  enlargement  of 
vision  that  helped  to  kill  feudalism,  to  elevate  the 
church,  and  to  aid  the  magnificent  race  forward  to 
the  better  things.  Before  the  friars  had  gained 
their  foothold  at  Oxford,  theology  was  threatened 
with  a  subordinate  place  but  those  devout  vassals 
of  the  pope  made  it  their  object  to  place  theology 
in  its  proper  condition.  This  victory  caused  an  in- 
crease of  students  until  the  numbers  rivaled  even 
Paris,  and  from  it  teachers  were  sought  for  the  con- 
tinental universities.  Such  was  the  influence  of  the 
friars,  that  the  colleges  became  so  monkish  in  form 
that  vows  and  celibate  lives  were  required;  like  con- 


138  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

vents  they  were  self-governing,  they  could  hold  land 
in  mortmain,  had  prayers  for  founders  and  anni- 
versary days  for  them,  and  fellows  were  required 
to  take  holy  orders. 

The  origin  of  Cambridge  University  is  somewhat 
better  in  hand  for  it  is  known  that  Jaffrid,  the  ab- 
bot of  Croyland,  sent  four  of  his  men  to  the  town 
of  Cambridge  to  open  a  school  for  obtaining  money 
to  aid  the  building  of  that  monastery.  They  be- 
gan their  teaching  in  a  barn  and  being  good  teachers 
soon  attracted  a  large  number  of  pupils,  so  many, 
indeed,  that  to  direct  them  they  had  to  be  divided  into 
groups.  Much  money  was  secured  by  the  devoted 
monks  to  rebuild  Croyland  Abbey,  but  a  vaster  good 
was  unknowingly  done  by  them  in  founding  for  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  a  great  university. 

In  his  native  town  of  Higham  Ferrars,  Archbishop 
Chicheley  founded  a  college  with  a  faculty  of  twenty, 
a  part  of  whose  duty  it  was  to  pray  for  the  souls  of 
the  dead.  He  also  set  up  a  hospital  at  the  same 
place.  As  the  fourteenth  century  was  passing,  prel- 
ates and  others  so  clearly  saw  the  need  of  schools 
that  numbers  of  them  were  founded.  So  great  was 
the  scholastic  activity  that  it  is  said  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century  England  had  seventy- 
eight  colleges,  and  one  hundred  ninety-two  hospitals 
in  many  of  which  were  also  church  schools.  The 
following  century  added  sixty  schools  and  charity 
foundations,  but  only  eight  religious  houses.  Mon- 
archism  was  smitten  with  decay  in  the  presence  of 
mental  and  spiritual  growth. 

As  the  fifteenth  century  opened  and  sped  along 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


139 


college  after  college  was  added  to  the  two  great 
universities.  Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond, 
founded  St.  John's,  Cambridge,  Henry  Sixth,  in 
1441,  founded  the  famous  Eton,  and  at  Cambridge, 
King's  College,  as  well  as  making  large  gifts  to  two 
Oxford  colleges.  Eton  has  been  a  fitting  school  from 
that  time  to  this  for  the  universities,  at  first  for 
those  born  of  aristocratic  blood,  later,  of  all  bloods. 
Elizabeth,  queen  of  Edward  Fourth,  founded  Queens' 
College  that  was  further  fostered  by  Margaret, 
queen  of  Henry  Sixth.  The  foundation  by  the  two 
queens  throws  the  possessive  after  the  plural  queens 
to  distinguish  it  from  Queen's  College,  Oxford. 

Views  can  be  obtained  of  the  studies  pursued,  for 
it  is  known  of  the  seventy  students  in  one  college 
that  ten  were  to  study  civil  law,  ten  canon  law,  two 
medicine,  two  astronomy,  and  the  remainder  art  or 
theology.  Lincoln  College  was  founded  especially 
to  oppose  Wyclif's  teachings,  the  object  being  to 
combat  intellectual  dissent  by  intellectual  improve- 
ment. Wyclif's  work  as  well  as  the  War  of  the 
Roses  had  injured  the  schools  of  every  grade. 

Out  of  the  decay  of  the  monastic  life  grew  a 
scholastic  product  of  great  worth.  Monastery 
properties  were  offered  for  sale  so  cheaply  by  the 
chapters  that  Bishop  Wykeman  and  others  made 
purchases  at  such  low  price  that  great  endowments 
were  readily  made  for  the  schools.  During  the 
French  wars,  1402-14,  the  French  priories  in  Eng- 
land were  confiscated  to  the  number  of  one  hundred 
twenty-two  and  this  property  in  some  instances  was 
used  to  found  schools.  Schools  of  low  grade  were 


140  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

established  in  great  numbers  to  which  the  small 
children  could  go.  By  1485,  twenty-three  grammar 
schools  were  opened  in  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom in  addition  to  the  monastic  and  cathedral 
schools.  For  centuries  the  children  of  thralls  and 
peasants  had  been  denied  schooling,  the  upper  classes 
fearing  the  results  of  allowing  them  to  obtain  educa- 
tion. The  Lollards,  however,  true  to  manhood's 
needs,  opened  schools  for  such  low  classes,  this  being 
one  of  the  complaints  of  enactments  against  those 
sectaries. 

As  London  grew  it  petitioned  for  the  privilege  of 
setting  up  schools  and  other  towns  followed  the  lead 
of  the  metropolis.  Schools  without  charter  or  other 
right  of  existence  save  the  need  of  them,  were  set 
going  and  dubbed  "Adulterine"  schools,  but  such 
defiance  of  church  right  was  opposed  and  they  were 
mostly  suppressed,  for  the  clergy  considered  it  one 
part  of  their  duty  to  teach  the  children  about  them 
some  knowledge  of  letters.  It  is  certain  that  into 
the  conventual  schools  a  few  were  admitted  who  were 
not  specially  looking  toward  the  priesthood.  Some 
of  the  grammar  schools  carrying  on  primary  work 
till  one  was  fitted  for  the  universities  became  of 
note,  as  Beverly,  Ripon,  and  Southwell.  At  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  such  schools  existed  under  direc- 
tion of  university  authority.  The  guilds  also,  under 
the  growing  sense  of  personal  worth  fostered  by  the 
religious  life,  founded  schools,  one  duty  of  the  guild 
chaplain  being  to  act  as  schoolmaster.  From  these 
schools,  not  clerics  but  lay  people,  were  to  draw 
benefit.  So  universal  were  the  schools  that  possi- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

bly  the  only  class  wholly  illiterate  were  the  slaves. 

The  founders  of  those  old  colleges  knew  the 
worth  of  libraries  and  sought  to  furnish  their  founda- 
tions with  choice  manuscript  books.  Baliol  College 
had  two  hundred  left  it  by  Chancellor  Gray  in  1442. 
Three-fourths  of  a  century  before  that  Oriel  College 
possessed  about  one  hundred  volumes.  To  the  New 
College  Wykeman  gave  two  hundred  forty.  If 
money  was  worth  about  twenty  times  as  much  then 
as  now,  the  ten  pounds  that  the  Bible  cost  at  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century  would  represent  two 
hundred  pounds  or  a  thousand  dollars.  So  it  can 
be  seen  that  the  comparatively  few  volumes  in  those 
libraries  were  still  of  great  cost. 

The  Norman  clergy  and  laity  as  they  came  to 
England  found  in  architecture  hardly  anything  that 
could  be  termed  art,  the  churches  and  religious 
houses  being  mostly  of  poor  pattern  and  miserable 
construction.  With  power  and  wealth  at  hand  they 
sought  to  give  expression  to  their  religious  life  and 
artistic  sense  by  erecting  ornate  edifices.  The  few 
fine  buildings  they  found,  as  St.  Paul's  and  St. 
Peter's  in  London,  were  below  their  idea  of  fitness  so 
that  they  entered  upon  refitting  or  rebuilding  even 
those  finest  ones.  In  ecclesiastical  buildings  during 
this  period,  instead  of  civil  or  military  ones,  the 
deepening  life  of  England  found  means  of  speaking. 
The  style  changed  from  the  Romanesque  to  the  Nor- 
man, for  a  people  so  highly  developed  as  the  Nor- 
mans were  certain  to  have  an  art  of  their  own. 
Priories,  abbeys,  hospitals  and  other  buildings  were 
erected  and  usually  named  after  some  saint,  ancient 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

or  local,  as  a  mark  of  reverence  and  also  to  gain  the 
intercessory  power  of  that  saint  for  the  founder, 
the  chapter,  or  the  locality.  Those  buildings  as 
well  as  the  cathedrals,  were  often  of  great  size,  as 
if  devotion  could  be  increased  by  such  overwhelming 
vastness  as  to  dwarf  man  in  comparison. 

The  Norman  type  of  architecture  with  modified 
rounded  arch  gave  way  three  hundred  years  after 
the  Conquest  to  the  Gothic  or  Early  English  with 
clustered  columns  and  painted  windows.  It  was  a 
renascence  of  Christian  art.  A  person  now  wan- 
dering in  amazement  about  one  of  those  vast  piles 
with  extended,  uplifted  nave,  the  transepts  with  the 
nave  making  the  form  of  a  cross,  seeing  the  choir, 
the  chapel,  statuary,  stained  windows,  gilt  and 
marble,  and  accumulated  riches  of  centuries,  is  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  that  men  who  could  plan  and 
erect  such  stately,  beautiful,  overwhelming  temples 
of  worship,  must  have  had  greatness  of  heart  as 
well  as  elevated  genius  for  architecture.  The  few 
attempts  at  other  art  besides  architecture  were  in 
the  religious  spirit,  such  as  the  painting  on  the  walls 
at  the  Confessor's  shrine  at  Westminster  and  in 
some  other  churches.  But  all  the  efforts  were  crude. 
A  few  attempts  to  cut  sculpture,  figures  of  the  saints 
and  of  the  Christ  were  also  very  crude,  as  were  the 
paintings  of  similar  subjects  designed  to  teach  the 
people  Scriptural  truths  by  those  means.  The  most 
successful  art  among  the  people,  next  to  architec- 
ture, was  the  illumination  of  their  priceless  manu- 
scripts. These  being  produced  almost  exclusively 
by  the  cloistered  monks  were  the  work  of  leisure  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


143 


love  since  they  were  mostly  copies  of  religious  books. 

With  a  people  having  the  strong  spirit  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  emerging  from  barbarism  and 
deep  ignorance  even  into  the  Christian  faith,  it  could 
not  be  but  that  many  ill  customs  and  bad  manners 
would  cling  to  them.  A  continuous  effort  was  made 
to  bring  Christian  teachings  to  the  comprehension 
of  the  people  so  as  to  lead  to  better  conduct,  but 
it  required  a  long  course  of  religious  instruction  and 
of  religious  progress  to  overcome  so  many  pernicious 
ways.  Fairs,  like  those  in  connection  with  miracle 
plays,  and  days  of  sales  were  made  partly  religious 
occasions  by  the  church  services  held  at  those  times. 
Saints'  days  were  prolific  of  fairs,  combining  as  then 
was  thought  the  right  way,  the  secular  and  the  re- 
ligious. On  Sunday,  the  villein,  as  service  was  going 
on  in  the  church,  could  hang  his  slaughtered  lamb 
or  pig  for  sale  on  the  church  door  and  for  the  same 
purpose  could  bring  his  cattle  into  the  church  yard. 

The  coarse  habits  of  the  nobility  seem  to  have 
conferred  lease  of  similar  manners  upon  the  common 
people.  Bear-baiting  and  bull-baiting  were  sports 
of  the  lower  classes.  When  the  retinue  of  Henry 
First  was  going  with  him  from  place  to  place,  it 
practiced  most  brutal  barbarities  upon  the  people 
along  the  route,  harassing  and  plundering  them, 
eating  and  drinking  in  their  houses,  compelling  the 
people  to  bring  food  and  drink,  then  without  ap- 
parent human  feeling  would  visit  unspeakable  out- 
rages upon  both  men  and  women. 

These  and  similar  brutalities  were  but  eddies  in 
the  great  forward  current.  As  an  expression  of 


144  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

the  softening  spirit  was  the  foundation  of  hospitals 
and  other  benevolent  houses.  Owing  to  lack  of 
sanitation  leprosy  became  a  common  disease  and  for 
it  hospitals  were  founded,  and  from  this,  as  a  first 
thought,  others  were  established  for  various  diseases. 
Some  of  those  institutions  founded  as  far  back  as 
the  fourteenth  century  have  continued  with  cumula- 
tive worth  until  the  present.  These  hospitals 
whether  built  by  the  prelates,  by  orders,  or  by  rich 
laymen,  were  always  established  under  church  direc- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Contemporary  private  writings  of  the  fifteenth 
century  show  that  the  religious  spirit,  in  many  of 
the  middle  classes  at  least,  was  active  and  thought- 
ful. 

The  Paston  Letters,  covering  a  large  portion  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  a  collection  of  large  private 
correspondence,  have  invaluable  information  of  many 
kinds,  are  most  interesting,  give  insight  of  family, 
public  and  religious  life,  and  much  history  not 
otherwise  attainable. 

One  son  of  the  family  begs  his  mother  to  go  pray 
at  the  "Rood  of  Northerdor,"  meaning  the  north 
door  of  St.  Paul's,  and  "Seynt  Savyour  at  Bar- 
monsey,"  and  his  sister  Margery  also,  that  she  might 
obtain  a  good  husband.  Their  piety  found  expres- 
sion in  another  way  for  Clement  Paston  made 
legacies  to  the  High  Altar,  to  the  vicar  of  Paston 
for  tithes,  for  lights  for  St.  Margaret,  for  lights 
for  the  Rodeloft  church,  for  repairing  church,  to 
the  Trunch  church,  for  Mouslee  church,  and  to  the 
Convent  of  Brownholm.  Another  member  of  the 
family  made  donations  among  the  poor  and  the 
prisoners  of  London.  Glimpses  are  also  obtained 
of  the  frequent  pilgrimages  then  in  vogue  on  which 
members  of  this  family  went,  while  nobles  and  even 
the  king  and  queen  are  shown  going  to  the  tomb  of 
Becket  at  Canterbury  with  the  great  crowds  flock- 
ing to  it.  The  will  of  Margery,  the  strongest  char- 

145 


146  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

acter  in  this  remarkable  family,  is  illuminating  in 
the  field  of  devotion.  In  it  she  commends  her  soul 
to  Almighty  God,  to  Our  Lady  His  blessed  Mother, 
to  St.  Michael,  to  St.  John  Baptist,  and  to  All 
Saints.  She  made  gifts  to  several  churches  and 
to  different  orders  of  the  friars,  to  chapels,  hos- 
pitals and  other  religious  houses  that  they  might 
serve  mass  and  keep  continuous  prayers  for  her 
soul. 

In  the  literary  productions  given  to  the  world 
during  this  period  the  religious  life  is  most  vividly 
pictured.  The  treatises  of  Landfranc  and  others  of 
a  controversial  kind,  the  lives  of  prominent  church- 
men by  Eadner  and  his  fellows,  the  history  of 
cathedrals  and  monasteries  by  Turgot,  Selcord  and 
men  of  their  spirit,  the  chronicles  of  abbeys  and  of 
royal  deeds  and  of  current  history  by  such  monks 
as  Odericus,  Malmesbury,  Geoffrey  and  others,  all 
are  very  storehouses  of  contemporary  information 
from  which  all  writers  have  drawn.  Little  literary 
work  was  done  except  by  churchmen,  though  one,  a 
merchant,  wrote  of  a  pilgrimage  to  Palestine.  Lay- 
men deemed  letters  worthless  or  a  weakness.  The 
Table  Talk  of  Henry  Second,  by  Walter  Map,  was 
made  up  of  stories  of  monks,  miracles,  satires  on 
contemporary  hypocrites,  and  of  other  religious 
phases  of  the  day.  This  same  man  had  much  to  do 
in  nationalizing  the  legends  of  King  Arthur,  the 
story  of  the  Holy  Grail  and  other  parts  of  that 
series.  "Goliath,"  a  biting  satire  on  the  self-seek- 
ing prelates  and  corrupted  monks,  was  a  protest 
against  things  not  Christlike  in  churches  and  society, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

a  spirit  which  beginning  then  has  never  ceased  to 
the  present.  One  sign  of  progress  was  that  Laya- 
mon,  in  1200-5,  wrote  in  the  vernacular,  when  be- 
fore Latin  or  French  had  been  used  alone  in  literary 
work.  Ormulum  and  Ancren  Rewle  were  written  for 
the  purpose  of  teaching  the  people  and  nuns  the 
way  of  right  living.  Heroes  of  legends  were  all 
pious  souls,  Hereward,  so  devout  as  to  have  a  priest, 
Friar  Tuck,  always  with  him  so  as  to  render  mass 
three  times  a  day,  while  Havelock  "loved  God  with 
all  his  might." 

Roger  Bacon  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  few 
great  men  given  of  Heaven  to  enliven  and  enlighten 
human  minds.  As  thoroughly  educated  as  the  times 
could  yield,  of  independent  spirit,  he  became  a 
Franciscan  friar,  attracted  to  them  no  doubt  by 
their  renown  in  letters.  The  pope's  request  for  him 
to  write  out  for  papal  delectation  all  he  knew,  re- 
sulted in  his  writing,  "Opus  Majus,"  an  encyclopedic 
book  for  that  age.  His  independent  research  and 
untrammeled  mind  were  a  presage  of  later  freedom 
of  thought.  Songs,  fables,  satires,  sayings,  existed 
among  the  people  directing  and  stimulating  to  the 
piety  of  the  lower  classes.  Some  were  metrical 
paraphrases  of  the  Bible,  others  of  religious  duties, 
prominent  clerics  not  being  above  preparing  such 
modes  of  instruction  for  the  people.  "Gesta 
Romanorum"  was  the  name  given  to  a  great  collec- 
tion mostly  of  religious  cast,  primarily  prepared  for 
preachers  to  enliven  their  sermons  and  homilies,  as 
the  friars  had  done  to  make  their  addresses  more  in- 
teresting to  their  auditors.  This  collection  gathered 


148  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

from  all  sources  was  drawn  on  by  such  literary  men 
as  Chaucer,  Gower  and  Shakespeare. 

By  the  middle  and  last  of  the  fourteenth  century 
a  great  epoch  of  intellectual  fruitfulness  came  to 
England.  In  it  are  the  names  of  Chaucer,  Gower, 
Langland,  Wyclif,  and  others  hardly  less  known. 
John  Gower,  dubbed  by  Chaucer  as  "The  Moral 
Gower,"  wrote  three  books,  two  of  which  are  pre- 
served. These,  "Vox  Clamantis"  and  "Confessio 
Amantis,"  both  in  Latin  verse,  cry  out  for  better 
moral  and  religious  conditions.  He  hides  under 
the  semblance  of  the  tender  passion,  stories  from  the 
Bible  and  from  classic  literature,  designing  by  these 
stories  to  be  a  preacher  of  righteousness  to  the 
people  of  his  time  against  the  seven  deadly  sins.  In 
a  similar  vein  was  Richard  Ralle's  "Prick  of  Con- 
science," describing  the  popular  belief  of  the  day 
that  bad  and  good  angels  waited  at  the  bedside  of 
the  dying  to  secure  the  fleeting  soul. 

Possibly  the  book  that  had  the  profoundest  in- 
fluence for  righteousness  at  that  time,  though  not 
the  best  literature,  was  the  "Vision  of  Piers  the 
Plowman."  The  author,  John  Langland  was,  like 
Ralle,  a  clerk  but  of  so  loose  a  profession  as  to  have 
a  wife  and  daughter.  Langland's  poem  in  the 
vernacular  was  for  the  common  people.  A  dreamer, 
like  Bunyan,  he  sees  in  his  vision  that  the  scandalous 
evils  of  the  day,  darkening  life  in  church  and  state, 
can  be  remedied  by  three  forces,  Do  Well,  Do  Bet- 
ter, Do  Best. 

While  Langland  was  the  poet  of  the  lowly, 
Chaucer,  his  contemporary,  was  the  poet  of  the  noble. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


149 


As  Langland  lived  among  the  toilers  of  the  street 
and  field,  Chaucer  reveled  in  court  with  knights, 
earls  and  princes,  singing  for  them.  No  literary 
star  shone  so  bright  until  the  rise  of  Shakespeare. 
Through  his  eyes  we  can  see  the  Englishmen  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Their  habits,  morals,  religion, 
manners  good  and  bad,  are  a  very  medley  of  life. 
The  story  of  Canterbury  Tales,  charming  all  who 
read  it,  pictures  a  company  of  twenty-nine  persons, 
well  representing  all  phases  of  English  life  at  that 
time,  going  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Becket's  shrine,  and 
to  relieve  the  tedium  of  travel  each  one  is  to  tell 
some  stories,  though  the  plan  was  only  in  part  car- 
ried out.  If  the  characters  are  truly  represented 
and  the  spirit  shown  also  true,  and  doubtless  the 
poet  takes  his  readers  along  the  path  of  actual  con- 
ditions, the  religious  life  in  the  ranks  higher  than 
shown  in  "Piers  Plowman"  needed  a  conscious  reform. 
From  the  time  of  Wyclif,  Langland  and  Chaucer 
onward,  the  incisive  English  became  a  mighty  living 
power  in  reform  and  progress.  When  the  common 
speech  of  the  masses  hungering  for  the  truth  became 
the  speech  of  the  reformer's  pamphlets,  of  the  poems 
of  genius,  of  the  translated  Bible  and  the  volumes  of 
religious  controversy  and  doctrine,  then  the  way  was 
laid  for  better  religious  life  and  whatever  great 
movements  would  come  in  attendance.  The  legends 
of  King  Arthur  and  of  the  Holy  Grail  were,  it  is  pos- 
sible, doing  some  good  like  the  noble  deeds  of 
chivalry  for  purity  and  faith.  "The  Plowman's 
Crede"  a  product  of  the  closing  years  of  the  four- 
teenth century  is  sometimes  joined  with  "Piers  Plow- 


150  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

man,"  but  it  is  probably  from  an  unknown  author. 
The  plowman  in  this  poem,  not  having  learned  the 
creed  though  knowing  the  Ave  Marie  and  Pater- 
noster, goes  to  one  friar  after  another  only  to  be 
turned  away  with  contempt,  but  at  last  finds  in  an 
unkempt  toiler  at  the  plow  one  who  teaches  a  short 
creed,  charity  toward  a  sufferer.  The  War  of  the 
Roses  made  a  dearth  of  mental  activity,  the  church 
life  as  well  as  the  national  life  sinking  to  a  low  ebb. 
But  in  the  horizon  two  mighty  forces  were  assisting 
to  electrify  the  race,  the  printing  press  and  the 
renascence  period.  And  these  were  vital  helps  to- 
ward the  Reformation. 

The  constitutional  growth  had  much  to  do  with 
the  religious  progress  since  the  grand  object  of 
Anglo-Saxon  constitution  is  to  give  to  man,  as  man, 
his  natural  rights.  This  spirit  is  also  a  directing 
force  in  Christianity.  The  New  Testament  is  a 
great  Bill  of  Rights,  a  Charter  of  personal  liber- 
ties. The  Conqueror,  though  he  had  pledged  to 
rule  the  people  by  the  laws  previously  governing 
them,  later  became  very  despotic,  his  word  being  en- 
forced as  supreme  law.  Still  protecting  the  church 
from  the  encroachments  of  the  pope  he  aided  that 
organization  as  best  he  could.  His  separation  of 
the  clerical  courts  from  the  secular  ones  led  to  a 
vast  amount  of  conflict,  for  it  gave  the  clergy  op- 
portunities of  condoning  vice  and  crime  among  them- 
selves. In  the  reign  of  William  Rufus  no  constitu- 
tional progress  was  possible,  since  he  is  described  as 
"unrestrained  by  religious  principle  or  policy,  a 
foul  incarnation  of  selfishness,  an  enemy  of  God  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


151 


man  giving  to  England  and  Christendom  an  incarna- 
tion of  absolutism."  He  enslaved  and  plundered 
the  church. 

To  the  next  king,  Henry  First,  is  ascribed  the 
honor  of  granting  the  earliest  charter  of  rights 
given  to  the  English  people.  It  sought  to  mitigate 
the  absolutism  of  William  Rufus  and  to  do  justice 
to  all  classes.  He  promised  not  to  retain  the  vacant 
benefices  or  to  farm  them  out.  The  king's  court  was 
to  be  called  three  times  a  year  to  render  justice  to 
all.  He  revived  and  registered  old  laws  and  the 
office  of  chancellor  was  made  for  the  king's  chaplains. 
To  the  church  he  granted  the  right  of  chapters  to 
elect  their  heads,  the  elections  to  be  held  in  the 
king's  court.  He  granted  by  license  only  appellate 
and  legislative  power  to  the  pope,  this  action  being 
made  the  ground  of  the  appeal  of  centuries  by  the 
English  in  their  resistance  to  papal  impositions. 

Stephen's  scramble  for  the  throne  was  such  that 
his  accession  was  counted  a  usurpation  and  enabled 
the  prelates  and  nobles  to  secure  a  renewal  of 
Henry's  charter  with  additions.  Simony  was  for- 
bidden, laws  of  the  Confessor  relating  to  property 
and  dignities  were  revived,  cases  of  accusation 
against  clerics  were  left  with  their  bishops,  and  he 
let  alone  testamentary  disposition  of  the  clergy  and 
the  administration  of  vacant  churches.  Prelates 
had  castles  to  protect  themselves  like  the  barons, 
for  the  feudal  system  was  in  full  play.  Stephen's 
arbitrary  ways  provoked  civil  war.  In  the  struggle 
between  Stephen  and  Matilda,  the  prelacy  came  to 
the  front,  and  in  deposing  Stephen,  and  again 


152  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Matilda,  made  a  precedent  according  to  which  Ed- 
ward Second  and  Richard  Second  and  James  First 
were  also  deposed.  The  synods  meeting  from  time 
to  time  were  insistent  that  good  government  of  the 
land  should  be  exercised  and  that  the  Charter 
should  be  observed.  The  jury  system  existent  be- 
fore in  embryo  came  into  definite  use  and  form  dur- 
ing this  time.  The  mental  and  political  ferment  led 
men  to  write  on  government  matters,  Glanville  pro- 
ducing a  treatise  on  law  and  Fitz-Neal  one  on  fi- 
nance, the  first  of  importance  produced  in  England. 
When  John  came  to  the  throne  by  election,  in 
1199,  the  archbishop  claimed  it  was  an  act  of  the 
nation  after  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  had 
been  invoked.  Probably  the  provisions  of  the 
Magna  Carta  relating  to  the  church  helped  it  more 
politically  than  in  the  direct  work  of  the  religious 
life,  but  the  two  are  so  blended  as  to  make  separa- 
tion impossible.  The  first  clause  granted  the  free- 
dom of  the  church  in  the  election  to  bishoprics,  while 
the  archbishop,  bishops  and  abbots  were  to  be  called 
with  lay  nobles  to  Parliament  by  royal  writs.  In 
the  affair  of  the  Charter  most  of  the  clergy  acted 
with  the  barons,  Langton,  though  in  attendance 
upon  the  king,  largely  inspiring  the  leading  men  in 
the  movement.  The  conduct  of  the  clergy  in  direct- 
ing church  affairs,  their  courts,  councils,  writs,  were 
the  models  after  which  the  civil  procedure  was  often 
patterned.  Their  representation  in  councils  must 
have  shown  the  way  for  civil  representation  later 
in  Parliament,  and  the  election  to  office  in  the  chap- 
ters doubtless  directed  civil  elections. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  153 

The  constitutional  relations  to  the  religious  life 
were  in  this  period  marked  by  three  great  statutes, 
Mortmain,  Provisors,  and  Premunire.  The  first  of 
these,  Mortmain,  literally  "dead  hand,"  had  its 
origin  in  Magna  Carta.  A  clause  in  that  document 
forbade  any  one  to  give  his  property  to  a  religious 
house,  and  then,  taking  it  back,  hold  it  under  the 
protective  provisions  of  that  house.  It  can  be  seen 
that  these  religious  houses  being  perpetual  corpora- 
tions could  hold  property  forever  unproductive  for 
national  defense  and  other  burdens,  since  most  of 
the  religious  houses  had  special  exemption  from  such 
burdens  by  papal  favors  and  by  other  means.  This 
statute  of  Edward  First  was  really  a  broader  re- 
statement of  an  older  one.  By  it  land  transferred 
without  royal  license  was  forfeited.  It  designed  to 
stop  the  vast  accumulation  of  lands  by  the  religious 
bodies  which  were  absorbing  them  rapidly.  A  hun- 
dred years  later  it  was  interpreted  as  forbidding  the 
transference  of  land  to  guilds  and  fraternities  that 
also  held  property  in  perpetuity.  This  statute  was, 
however,  by  the  ingenuity  of  lawyers,  often  evaded 
by  the  clergy. 

The  statute  of  Provisors,  passed  in  1351  under 
Edward  Third,  was  the  culmination  of  a  series  of 
attempts  to  get  rid  of  papal  interference  in  the  elec- 
tion of  bishops.  The  Parliament  of  Carlisle,  in 
1307,  had  stated  in  a  petition  of  earls,  barons  and 
commons,  that  the  church  founded  by  Englishmen 
in  the  past  that  they  might  learn  the  faith,  and  that 
provision  might  be  made  for  prayers,  alms  and  hos- 
pitality, had  seen  these  foundations  by  recent  action 


154  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  the  pope  thrown  into  alien  hands.  By  the  statute 
of  Provisors,  elections  to  benefices  and  dignities 
were  to  be  free,  persons  accepting  papal  promotions 
were  to  be  arrested,  and  some  other  similar  provi- 
sions were  included.  The  next  year  purchasers  of 
papal  provisions  were  declared  outlaws,  and  later 
still  penalty  was  increased  to  forfeiture  and  banish- 
ment. While  these  laws  were  now  and  then  evaded 
by  various  means,  in  all  the  struggle  against  papal 
interference  and  assumptions  they  aided  the  patriot. 
Again  the  Parliament  in  1401  demanded  their  execu- 
tion. 

Two  years  after  Provisors  in  1353,  the  third  of 
those  great  statutes,  Premunire,  was  enacted.  It 
took  its  name  from  the  first  word  of  the  writ  issued 
in  the  Latin  language.  Owing  to  the  presumptions 
of  the  papacy,  the  relations  with  Rome  had  become 
very  strained  and  a  deep  irritation  was  consequent 
in  England.  By  this  statute  any  one  suing  in 
foreign  courts  for  things  cognizable  in  the  king's 
court  forfeited  his  property,  became  liable  to  im- 
prisonment and  was  outlawed.  If  one  would  not 
obey  the  summons  against  use  of  foreign  courts  he 
was  to  answer  for  contempt.  The  real  aim  was  to 
stop  the  appeal  to  or  use  of  papal  courts,  a  way 
that  had  become  prevalent  and  most  distressing. 
A  few  years  later,  an  additional  statute  definitely 
named  the  papal  courts  and  later  still  imposed  for- 
feiture of  goods  for  obtaining  bulls  or  other  orders 
from  Rome. 

There  was  danger  that  the  increase  of  bishops' 
sees  which  put,  for  every  new  one,  another  cleric 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  155 

into  Parliament  would  give  the  cleric  element  pre- 
ponderance in  that  body  and  by  king  and  laity  such 
increase  was  jealously  watched.  But  the  monaste- 
ries were  so  declining  that  the  abbots  were  falling 
lower  in  influence  both  in  Parliament  and  out  of  it. 
The  convocations  changed  little,  meeting  usually  at 
the  same  time  as  the  Parliament,  and  sometimes  at 
the  request  of  royalty  voting  money  for  the  king's 
needs.  The  legislative  work  of  the  church  was  lega- 
tive,  or  diocesan,  or  provincial,  according  to  the 
rank  of  the  one  under  whose  jurisdiction  the  work 
was  done.  Their  meeting  and  acts  were  only  by 
royal  permission.  As  legislation  was  mixed,  clerics 
for  clerics,  clerics  for  laity,  laity  for  clerics, 
jumbles  must  sometimes  have  occurred  and  it  was 
difficult  to  keep  the  dividing  line  distinct  in  its  ad- 
ministration. By  the  end  of  this  period  there  were 
about  ten  thousand  parishes,  but  several  times  as 
many  clerics  of  one  order  and  another.  In  Parlia- 
ment sat  two  archbishops  and  eighteen  bishops.  As 
time  passed  more  of  the  lower  classes  by  education 
and  merit  were  able  to  reach  high  places  in  the 
church.  Enactments  were  sought  against  such  pos- 
sibility, but  kingly  power  increasing,  the  monarchs 
were  more  lenient  towards  the  lowly  and  sought  their 
support.  In  the  time  of  Henry  Seventh,  the  final 
form  of  parliamentary  act  was: 

"The  king  to  the  honor  of  God  and  the  Holy  Church, 
and  for  the  common  profit  of  the  realm  by  advice  and 
authority  of  the  lords'  spiritual  and  temporal." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  English  Reformation  was  no  sudden  conver- 
sion. Several  great  events  in  human  progress  pre- 
pared the  way  for  its  coming.  Lollardry  had  never 
ceased  from  Wyclif  Js  time,  the  Renaissance  had  aided 
in  awakening  the  human  spirit,  the  invention  of 
printing  had  multiplied  information  and  power,  the 
discovery  of  America  and  of  a  water  way  to  India 
had  increased  the  knowledge  of  other  lands,  and  all 
united  to  broaden  the  human  vision.  Owing  to  these 
impulses  and  also  to  others  western  Europe  could 
no  longer  submit  to  the  repression  and  ignorance  of 
medievalism.  This  part  of  the  world  was  now  bound 
to  leave  behind  the  assumptions  of  the  Roman 
hierarchy.  The  human  spirit  was  struggling  to  be- 
come free  as  never  before.  That  spirit  began  to  feel 
its  rights,  its  boundless  capacity,  and  soon  would 
brook  no  fetters.  Had  these  forces  been  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  English  people  in  Wyclif's  time  it  is 
possible  that  the  reform  of  the  sixteenth  century 
would  have  come  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  sooner. 
As  the  agitation  started  in  Germany  by  Luther  was 
spreading  rapidly  over  Europe,  it  stirred  the  slum- 
bering embers  of  Lollardry  in  England. 

Both  the  people  and  the  clergy  were  alert,  the  one 
to  obtain  the  new  way  and  learn  its  benefits,  the 
other  to  shield  their  order  from  its  threatenings, 
and  to  intensify  the  repression  of  heresy.  In  St. 

Paul's,  London,  was   a  prison  specially  devoted  to 

156 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


157 


these  heretics,  known  as  the  Lollard's  Tower.  In 
1519,  several  were  burned  at  the  stake,  and  one, 
Richard  Hunne,  was  found  murdered  in  the  bish- 
ops' prison  or  Lollard's  Tower,  and  his  body  after 
burial,  like  that  of  Wyclif,  was  dug  up  and  burned. 

The  people  at  large  to  a  considerable  degree  gave 
welcome  to  the  teachings  of  Luther,  for  many  books 
produced  by  the  continental  reformers  were  brought 
to  England  by  merchants  and  travelers  passing  the 
narrow  sea.  These  writings  and  their  reception  by 
the  people  greatly  exasperating  the  ecclesiastics, 
men  and  women  were  burned  at  the  stake  for  teach- 
ing their  children  in  the  English  tongue  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  Apostles' 
Creed.  Wolsey  ordered  the  bishops  to  gather  all 
the  books  of  Luther  and  send  them  to  him. 

The  Renascence  came  to  England  just  as  the  fer- 
ment of  religious  matters  was  arising  and  was  a 
powerful  agent  in  opening  the  way  for  the  Reforma- 
tion. Dean  Colet  of  St.  Paul's,  having  been  in  Italy 
for  the  study  of  the  literature  scattered  westward 
from  Constantinople  when  in  1453  the  Turks  cap- 
tured that  city,  brought  to  England  the  new  spirit, 
though  greatly  modified  from  the  pagan  trend  being 
given  it  in  Italy.  He  wanted  all  benefits  arising 
from  the  new  learing  possible  to  come  to  Christian- 
ity, and  began  planning  and  teaching  for  that  noble 
end.  With  men  of  a  similar  spirit,  Linacre,  Grocyn, 
More,  the  German  Erasmus  and  others,  encouraged 
by  Warham  and  by  the  scholarly  instincts  of  the 
young  king,  Henry  Eighth,  the  benefits  which  the 
movement  brought  to  England  were  shared  with 


158  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Colet  as  he  labored.  It  alarmed  the  sleepy  ecclesias- 
tics and  when  complaint  was  carried  to  the  king  and 
he  made  a  personal  investigation  into  the  results  of 
Colet's  course,  the  pleased  potentate  instead  of 
silencing  the  inconoclastic  Dean  heartily  cried, 
"This  man  is  the  doctor  for  me."  Erasmus  and 
others  worked  hard  to  bring  the  New  Testament  in 
Greek  to  the  hand  of  all.  When  this  was  out 
with  notes  and  paraphrases  Warham  sent  copies  to 
all  the  prelates  to  read,  the  bishop  of  Winchester  de- 
claring it  to  be  worth  ten  commentaries.  The  spirit 
of  Erasmus  in  preparing  this  annotated  New  Testa- 
ment can  be  seen  when  he  said, 

"I  long  for  the  day  when  the  husbandman  shall  sing 
portions  of  them  to  himself  as  he  follows  the  plough, 
when  the  weaver  shall  hum  them  to  the  time  of  his 
shuttle,  when  the  traveler  shall  while  away  with  their 
stories  the  weariness  of  his  journey." 

The  devotion  of  these  great  teachers  to  their  high 
object,  their  bravery  in  face  of  cleric  opposition  that 
knew  no  mercy  to  heresy,  their  noble  purpose  to 
reach  and  enlighten  the  people  in  religious  ways,  en- 
title them  to  the  profoundest  gratitude  and  the  high- 
est praise.  The  work  of  Erasmus  and  that  of  Colet 
was  reformatory  as  well  as  literary.  Colet  could 
sneer  at  the  costly  offerings  he  found  piled  on 
Becket's  tomb,  and  turn  away  in  disgust  when  the 
attendant  monk  offered  the  saint's  shoe  and  rag  to 
kiss.  Reform  was  getting  into  the  very  air. 

These  teachers  took  unyielding  position  against 
war,  the  spirit  of  which  was  rampant  in  that  age, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


159 


and  in  which  their  young  patron,  King  Henry, 
greatly  to  their  sorrow,  was  preparing  to  engage. 
Colet,  to  carry  forward  the  reforms  he  sought, 
founded  grammar  schools,  using  his  own  fortune  to 
establish  that  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  and  so  eagerly 
did  other  men  of  wealth  follow  the  high  purpose  of 
the  Dean  that  schools  were  founded  in  various  parts 
of  the  realm,  the  beginning  of  systematic  education 
for  the  middle  classes  from  whom  have  come  since 
that  time  most  of  England's  great  men.  Over  the 
master's  chair  in  Colet's  school  was  an  image  of  the 
child  Jesus  and  the  words,  "Hear  ye  Him."  Both 
of  the  Universities,  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  were 
deeply  moved  by  the  new  spirit  entering  the  realm. 

In  this  time  of  mental  ferment  one  literary  work 
of  genius  appeared,  the  "Utopia"  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 
In  this  ideal  state  all  religions  were  tolerated.  He 
claimed  what  later  comparative  study  of  religions 
has  found,  that  all  great  religions  have  some  truth 
in  their  constituents,  though  in  "Utopia"  the  Christian 
religion  was  clearly  at  the  head.  In  this  ideal  state 
legislation  was  guided  by  a  purpose  to  benefit  all, 
whether  of  high  or  low  degree,  the  purpose  one  can 
now  see  of  Christianity  in  its  beneficent  evangel  to 
man.  A  book  written  with  these  teachings,  though 
the  course  of  the  author  in  later  official  life  was 
sadly  at  variance  with  his  preachments,  could  not 
fail  in  spurring  forward  the  human  mind  to  find  re- 
lief in  protest  and  liberty. 

Two  allied  inventions,  paper  making  and  the  print- 
ing press,  seem  providentially  opportune  at  this  time 
in  helping  humanity  in  its  search  for  truth  and  free- 


160  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

dom.  General  knowledge  was  increased  with  a 
rapidity  that  was  marvelous.  All  fields  were  en- 
tered. But  no  field  was  entered  more  eagerly  than 
that  of  religion.  At  first  no  Bible  was  printed  in 
the  English,  but  the  editions  of  the  Greek  Testa- 
ments of  Erasmus  and  Colet  were  preparing  the  way 
for  Tyndale.  Whatever  books  of  controversy  or 
theological  exposition  were  put  forth  on  the  con- 
tinent, were  being  rapidly  translated  into  English, 
and  carried  to  England  to  awaken  the  dormant  in- 
tellect. The  rudely  printed  sheet,  the  short  sen- 
tentious pamphlet  which  usually  escaped  the  lynx 
eyes  of  the  ghostly  censors  were  surreptitiously  ob- 
tained and  as  secretly  read.  As  the  years  passed 
the  king  issued  orders  againt  the  importation  of 
these  pestilent  books,  naming  Tyndale's  "New  Testa- 
ment," "The  Supplication  of  Beggars,"  Luther's 
"Revelation  of  Antichrist,"  and  others.  Such  books 
getting  into  Oxford  University  made  "gospellers"  of 
some  of  the  inmates  and  even  martyrs.  In  such  new- 
found means  of  knowledge  the  people  rejoiced.  To 
think  for  themselves,  to  read  the  burning  thoughts  of 
others  ahead  of  themselves  in  the  search  for  truth, 
were  new  sensations  and  they  rejoiced  like  dis- 
coverers of  an  unknown  continent.  The  man  with 
a  book  became  a  power. 

Henry  Eighth  at  the  first  was  a  devoted  servant 
of  the  papal  church.  In  his  coronation  oath  he 
swore  to  keep  and  maintain  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  Holy  Church  of  old  times  granted  by  the 
righteous  kings  of  Christian  England.  Until  the 
death  of  his  older  brothers,  Henry  was  being  pre- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


161 


pared  to  receive  the  archbishopric.  His  book 
against  Luther  has  been  claimed  to  be  the  ablest 
attempt  made  to  defend  papal  orthodoxy.  This 
book  dedicated  to  the  pope  won  for  Henry  the  title 
"Defender  of  the  Faith,"  a  title  proudly  worn  by 
all  English  potentates  since,  though  not  always  ap- 
plicable to  the  sovereigns  since  his  time.  Had  there 
not  been  the  very  mixed  affair  of  his  marriage  to 
his  brother's  widow  and  later  his  passion  for  the 
pretty  Anne  Boleyn,  there  is  no  guessing  what 
course  England  would  have  taken. 

Henry  found  in  Wolsey  a  most  able  minister. 
Though  aiming  at  the  papal  dignity  he  still  served 
his  prince  with  devotion  and  matchless  ability.  His 
ecclesiastical  presumptions  and  defense  of  clerical 
prerogative  propagated  an  insolent  spirit  among  the 
lower  clergy.  As  papal  legate  Wolsey  instituted 
a  legatine  court,  which  taking  cognizance  of  matters 
of  conscience  and  of  reforming  manners  carried  on 
under  its  cover  the  grossest  extortions  and  pious 
plunder.  Under  his  legatine  authority  he  had  con- 
trol of  all  the  clergy,  of  the  abbeys  and  cells,  and 
in  all  appeals  from  the  lower  ecclesiastical  courts 
superseded  papal  control  in  England.  Wolsey  ob- 
tained permission  of  the  pope  to  suppress  forty  of 
the  degenerated  monasteries  using  their  proceeds  in 
the  erection  of  his  two  colleges,  one  at  Oxford,  the 
other  at  Ipswich,  his  native  town.  Before  these 
plans  were  consummated  he  was  displaced,  but  the 
foundation  at  Oxford  was  carried  out  by  the  king 
under  the  name  of  Christ  Church  College. 

The  progress  of  thought  and  the  advance  toward 


162  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

religious  freedom  at  length  brought  forward  the 
necessity  for  a  Bible  in  the  vernacular.  Wyclif's  had 
not  been  printed.  A  better,  more  modern  version 
was  needed.  It  must  not  be  a  simple  transfer  into 
English  of  the  Vulgate,  but  one  produced  from  the 
corrected  Greek  and  Hebrew  texts  brought  forward 
by  the  scholarship  of  that  time.  As  early  as  the 
year  1524,  George  Stafford  of  Durham  read  at  Cam- 
bridge public  lectures  out  of  the  Bible.  But  the 
universities  were  preparing  a  man,  William  Tyndale, 
to  put  that  book  into  good  English,  translated  from 
the  annotated  Greek  and  Hebrew  editions,  and  to 
scatter  it  over  the  land.  He  sat  at  the  feet  of  Colet 
and  of  Erasmus,  an  ardent  student  of  the  Bible,  and 
early  became  an  adept  in  its  language.  Leaving  the 
university  he  soon  determined  to  translate  the  New 
Testament  into  English.  He  found  a  friend  in 
Humphrey  Monmouth,  a  rich  merchant,  by  whose 
aid  he  went  to  Germany  to  begin  the  work  of  giving 
a  Bible  in  his  own  tongue.  So  sharp  was  the  op- 
position even  in  England  that  Tyndale  was  a  fugi- 
tive from  one  German  city  to  another,  his  work  being 
interrupted  from  oversea  though  he  was  aided  in  it 
by  one  John  Fryth,  another  English  refugee.  The 
printing  of  the  New  Testament  was  begun  at 
Cologne  but  was  driven  from  there  to  Worms,  where 
in  1526  an  octavo  edition  of  ten  thousand  copies 
was  issued,  and  was  being  secretly  carried  to  Eng- 
land by  merchants  and  others  and  there  sold  at  two 
and  three  shillings  each  by  a  band  of  reformers 
known  as  Christian  Brethren.  These  New  Testa- 
ments were  ordered  seized  and  burnt  by  the  Privy 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  163 

Council,  men  being  put  under  sharp  and  dangerous 
punishment  for  possessing  and  reading  God's  word. 

John  Fr yth  was  busy  carrying  the  New  Testament 
to  inquirers  in  England,  and  he  was  also  aiding 
Tyndale  in  putting  the  Old  Testament  into  English. 
But  this  devoted  worker  was  captured  by  the  enemies 
of  reform  and  burnt  at  the  stake  in  1533.  At  Ant- 
werp, Tyndale  labored  at  a  revision  of  his  New 
Testament.  As  this  hurried  and  imperfect  edition 
was  brought  into  London  by  two  merchants,  Joy 
and  Constantine,  the  bishop,  Tonstal,  to  head  off 
the  use  of  it  secretly,  with  the  help  of  Packington, 
bought  up  all  the  remainder  of  the  edition  and  made 
a  great  bonfire  of  them  at  Cheapside.  The  money 
from  this  sale  went  as  Packington  intended  it  should, 
to  Tyndale  who  greatly  needed  it  to  put  out  a  second 
and  better  edition.  As  the  influx  of  the  hated  New 
Testament  continued,  Packington  was  questioned  by 
the  Lord  Chancellor  and  others  of  the  Council  who 
told  them  that  the  largest  purchaser  was  the  Lord 
Bishop  which  caused  great  merriment  among  the 
less  bigoted  laymen. 

After  translating  sections  of  the  Old  Testament, 
Tyndale  in  1535,  as  he  was  toiling  on  a  still  later 
edition  was  kidnaped,  probably  by  emissaries  of  the 
English  prelates  that  had  hitherto  failed  to  secure 
him.  He  was  hurried  to  a  part  of  the  country 
governed  by  Charles  Fifth,  kept  a  year  in  vile  pris- 
ons, and  then  in  spite  of  all  attempts  of  friends  in 
Antwerp  and  in  England  to  save  him,  among  whom 
was  Charles  Cromwell,  he  was  condemned  for  heresy, 
first  strangled  and  then  burned  at  the  stake.  His 


164  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

last  words  were,  "Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's 
eyes!"  Within  a  year  so  answered  was  this  prayer 
that  Henry  was  giving  his  sanction  to  the  issue  of 
a  Bible  slightly  revised  only  from  Tyndale's  trans- 
lation. His  herculean  labors  produced  a  translation 
which  has  formed  the  basis  of  style  for  all  versions 
since. 

The  English  Bible  was  not  to  be  suppressed. 
Cranmer  was  in  favor  of  its  use  by  the  people,  soon 
persuading  Henry  to  order  the  issue  of  another  ver- 
sion that  should  be  free  from  the  fearsome  renderings 
and  notes  of  Tyndale.  Soon  the  Matthews  Bible 
was  given  to  England,  the  revision  and  change  of 
Tyndale's  being  mostly  done  by  John  Rogers  who 
did  not  dare  to  have  the  version  come  out  bearing  his 
name,  but  gave  that  of  Matthews.  This  edition  was 
objected  to  by  the  prelates,  so  one  was  projected 
by  Cranmer  to  be  done  in  sections  by  the  English 
prelates  themselves.  For  this  purpose  the  arch- 
bishop distributed  sections  of  the  book  to  various 
bishops  to  be  rendered  into  acceptable  English,  all  of 
whom  seem  to  have  done  the  work  assigned  save 
Stakesly  of  London,  who,  returning  the  assignment 
untouched,  sent  as  a  reason  an  expression  of  the 
extreme  wing  of  the  short-sighted  and  bigoted  prel- 
ates of  that  epoch,  "I  marvel,"  he  said,  "what  my 
lord  of  Canterbury  meaneth  that  thus  abuseth  the 
people  in  giving  them  liberty  to  read  the  Scriptures, 
which  doth  nothing  else  but  infect  them  with  heresy. 
I  will  never  be  guilty  of  bringing  the  simple  people 
into  error." 

All   this    time   Tyndale's    translation    revised   by 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  165 

Rogers,  Coverdale  and  others,  was  secretly  supplied 
in  response  to  the  crying  demand.  As  Cranmer's 
edition  was  preparing  the  king  had  come  to  see  its 
worth  and  submitting  Coverdale's  revision  to  the 
bishops  asked  them  if  there  was  any  heresy  in  it, 
and  being  told  they  saw  none,  he  cried,  "Then  in 
God's  name  let  it  go  among  the  people."  Permis- 
sion was  given  for  it  to  be  read  in  public  and  in 
private,  the  first  edition  of  1537  being  soon  fol- 
lowed by  others.  But  only  a  few  years  passed  be- 
fore the  prelatical  party  gained  the  ascendency  in 
the  matter  when  the  permission  to  own  the  Bible  and 
to  read  it  was  rescinded.  The  copies  put  into  the 
churches  and  worn  out  by  the  eager  use  of  the 
people  were  not  replaced  and  the  suppression  con- 
tinued until  the  end  of  Henry's  reign.  While  the 
permission  to  read  it  had  remained,  passions  had  run 
high  for  and  against  this  grant.  Old  people  now 
first  learned  to  read  in  order  to  taste  this  precious 
book  for  themselves,  buying  copies  at  the  compara- 
tively small  cost  at  which  they  could  be  issued. 
Children  were  taught  letters  that  they  might  read 
the  Bible  to  their  letterless  parents  and  neighbors. 
Other  parents  opposing  this  permission  offered  to 
their  children,  beat  them  and  sometimes  threatened 
their  lives  for  learning  to  use  the  Bible. 

As  the  merchants  had  transported  the  Bible  from 
Holland  to  England  they  did  also  to  Scotland. 
The  strenuous  rise  of  the  reformation  there,  the  deep 
insight  of  the  acute  Scotch  character  into  the  truth, 
and  the  radical  change  soon  appearing,  were  largely 
due  to  the  Bible  and  the  reforming  literature  sent 


166  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

there.  While  these  publications  were  under  the  ban 
several  families  would  gather  in  secret  and  in  fear, 
all  listening  to  the  gracious  words  as  one  read.  In 
1542  the  Scot  Parliament  passed  an  act  making  it 
lawful  for  any  one  to  read  the  Bible  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  so  that  in  the  hands  of  the  common  people 
and  on  the  tables  of  the  upper  classes  the  precious 
book  was  everywhere  in  evidence.  After  this  time 
the  Scot  press  rapidly  pushed  the  issuing  of  re- 
formed publications.  There  came  a  national  awaken- 
ing. But  to  prepare  the  way  for  this  liberty,  Pat- 
rick Hamilton,  of  noble  blood  and  broad  culture, 
was  burned  at  the  stake  for  bringing  to  light  the 
corruption  and  errors  of  the  hierarchy,  while  Seaton, 
the  Confessor  of  James  Fifth,  for  preaching  similar 
doctrines,  was  driven  out  of  the  kingdom.  Not 
lucky  enough  to  escape  were  Forrest  and  Collet  of 
the  Bennet  monks  who,  for  declaring  Hamilton  to 
be  a  martyr,  were  themselves  condemned  to  the 
stake. 

The  separation  from  Rome  was  hardly  more  than 
an  incident  in  the  English  Reformation.  The  polit- 
ical results  were  large,  but  the  tide  was  so  rising 
among  the  people  as  to  cause  the  submerging  of 
many  beliefs  and  landmarks.  Henry's  question 
about  the  validity  of  his  marriage  with  his  brother's 
widow,  entered  on  as  a  state  policy,  was  consum- 
mated only  after  a  dispensation  of  the  pope.  A 
suggestion  of  Cranmer  that  the  English  church  was 
fully  competent  to  deal  with  the  affair,  was  a  way 
out  of  the  complications  of  the  hour  quite  consonant 
with  the  deeper  feeling  of  the  nation  with  respect  to 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  167 

Rome.  The  condition  of  the  religious  life  was  most 
distressing.  The  great  saving  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity were  fatally  obscured  by  a  host  of  imperfect 
beliefs,  absurd  practices  and  gross  superstitions. 
Salvation  was  not  by  faith  in  the  atonement  of 
Christ  but  in  the  mass  said  or  sung  by  monk  or 
priest.  Penance  and  pilgrimage  were  depended 
upon  to  free  from  sin  and  its  consequences. 

Crime  became  unspeakable.  Punishment  of  the 
most  drastic  character  tried  in  vain  to  stem  the  tide 
of  robbery,  foulness,  murder.  Some  of  the  monks 
and  priests  were  lecherous,  and  some  of  the  prelates 
were  said  to  make  places  for  their  own  sons.  The 
monasteries  became  a  byword  of  neglect  and  no  new 
foundations  were  being  made.  A  weaker  king  than 
Henry  might  have  differently  modified  the  inevitable 
reform  but  his  strong  will  and  fearless  action  seem 
to  have  been  needed. 

Wolsey  as  the  pope's  legate  could  not  fully  aid 
the  king  in  his  purpose  for  a  divorce.  The  action 
which  revived  the  power  of  Premunire  became  an 
instrument  for  the  remorseless  king  to  destroy  the 
minister  who  had  taught  him  the  statecraft  now 
guiding  him.  By  that  sweeping  law,  the  whole 
clergy  of  England  had  been  put  under  condemnation 
through  Wolsey's  administration  as  papal  legate, 
exemption  being  bought  from  it  by  the  Canterbury 
province  for  a  hundred  thousand  pounds,  and  for 
the  province  of  York  for  eighteen  thousand  pounds. 
Wolsey,  slow  to  press  for  the  king's  divorce,  was 
stripped  from  his  pluralities  and  offices  affording 
him  vast  income,  as  he  was  also  of  his  ostentatious 


168  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

pageantry.  In  disgrace  he  was  sent  to  administer 
the  province  of  York,  but  hated  by  the  nobility  at 
court  was  arrested  on  the  accusation  of  high  trea- 
son, and  died  broken-hearted  before  the  end  of  that 
accusation  could  be  inflicted. 

The  Commons  had  taken  strong  position  against 
pluralities  and  cleric  exaction  in  case  of  probate 
and  mortuaries.  The  people  were  becoming  ex- 
asperated at  the  continued  exactions  and  severe 
persecutions  still  kept  up  by  the  clerics.  The  body 
of  one  William  Tracy  was  ordered  dug  up  and 
burned  because  in  his  will  he  had  not  commended  his 
soul  to  the  intercession  of  the  saints.  A  lawyer  of 
the  Middle  Temple,  William  Bainham,  having  been 
arrested  for  denying  purgatory,  invocation  of  the 
saints,  extreme  unction  and  auricular  confession,  re- 
canted and  later  recalling  his  recantation  was  by 
order  of  Sir  Thomas  More  whipped  in  the  house  of 
Utopia's  author,  subjected  to  the  rack  and  later  sent 
to  the  stake. 

Both  Convocation  and  Parliament  voted  in  favor 
of  the  king's  supremacy.  Most  of  the  lower  clergy 
remained  loyal  to  Rome  in  sentiment  and  in  prac- 
tice of  services.  Especially  in  the  north  and  west 
they  organized  itineraries  to  preach  up  the  pope's 
power  over  that  of  potentates,  and  the  inferiority 
of  princes  to  the  clergy.  Cranmer  found  in  Hugh 
Latimer  an  able  helper  whose  preaching,  eloquent 
and  fiery,  was  sharp  against  worshiping  the  Vir- 
gin, the  saints,  as  well  as  against  pilgrimages  and 
similar  practices. 

Appeals   formerly  made  to   the  pope  could  now 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  169 

formally  be  made  to  the  king  in  Court  of  Chancery, 
and  prelates  were  curtailed  in  their  courts  of  juris- 
diction, thus  gathering  most  church  affairs  into 
royal  power.  Two  men  prominent  in  the  stirring 
times  were  able  to  take  the  oath  to  the  succession 
but  could  not  accept  other  debated  questions,  Sir 
Thomas  More  and  Bishop  Fisher.  Cranmer  desired 
allowance  to  be  made  them  but  the  king's  court  was 
not  willing  and  after  being  held  in  the  Tower  both 
were  beheaded  for  treason.  The  Carthusian  monks 
of  Charterhouse,  London,  were  willing  to  accept  the 
succession  but  not  the  king's  supremacy  in  church, 
so  three  of  their  priors  were  burned  at  Tyburn. 
Others  of  them  thrown  into  pestilent  prisons  were 
left  to  rot  and  die.  Passions  ran  high.  People 
were  easily  led  to  accept  wrong  opinions  or  to  follow 
some  absurd  impostor  and  the  priests  at  the  con- 
fessional were  infusing  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  the 
reform  into  the  minds  of  their  parishioners. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  monasteries  were  doomed  by  a  policy  like 
that  of  Henry.  Long  before  this  date,  as  far  back 
as  1489,  the  pope,  having  heard  of  the  evils  existing 
in  the  English  monasteries,  gave  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  directions  to  correct  and  reform  as  was 
found  necessary.  The  abbot  of  the  great  monastery 
of  St.  Albans,  near  London,  was  addressed  by  that 
prelate  in  a  letter  yet  extant  in  which  a  revolting 
list  of  accusations  is  recited  against  him  and  his 
house.  Some  of  these  were  of  "simony,  usury,  of 
dilapidation,  and  of  waste  of  goods,"  further  the  re- 
laxation of  religious  practices,  hospitality  and  alms, 
with  gross  and  uncommon  chastity,  the  priory  and 
prioress  being  accused  of  vices  and  crimes  too 
blackening  to  be  named.  The  property  was  alien- 
ated, precious  plate  and  jewels  sold  and  forests  cut 
down.  If  a  few  of  the  monasteries  had  maintained 
their  primitive  purposes  these  few  had  their  fair 
name  smirched  by  the  filth  of  the  mass.  Wolsey  had 
obtained  permission  of  the  pope  and  of  the  king  to 
dissolve  forty  of  them.  The  king  suppressed  the 
Observants  at  Greenwich,  Canterbury,  Richmond 
and  at  other  places,  filling  their  establishments  with 
Augustine  friars,  they  being  mercifully  spared  the 
frightful  fate  of  the  Carthusians. 

In  1536,  it  was  decided  that  all  the  monasteries 

with  less  income  than  two  hundred  pounds  a  year 

170 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


171 


should  be  dissolved,  the  revenues  from  them  put  to 
public  use  for  building  fortifications,  endowing  new 
dioceses  and  for  other  purposes.  A  commission  with 
Thomas  Cromwell  at  its  head  was  sent  out  on  a 
visitation,  their  scrutiny  including  even  the  highest 
prelates.  In  this  visitation  of  Cromwell's  commis- 
sion articles  to  the  number  of  eighty-six  were  to  be 
put  as  questions  in  determining  what  should  be  done, 
and  another  set  to  be  propounded  to  the  nunneries 
was  prepared.  From  some  fragments  of  this  report 
preserved,  the  original  document  having  been  lost, 
possibly  destroyed  in  Mary's  reign  with  other  in- 
criminating documents  known  to  have  gone  that  way, 
most  frightful  conditions  existed.  Erasmus,  an  un- 
prejudiced observer,  said  that  "Whereas  before  learn- 
ing was  mostly  in  the  monasteries  now  the  monks 
give  themselves  up  to  the  belly,  luxury  and  money." 
Hume  says  that  money  left  for  pious  purposes  was 
squandered  by  the  monks  in  taverns,  gambling  houses 
and  in  worse  places  still. 

It  is  said  that  three  hundred  seventy-six  of  the 
smaller  houses  were  dissolved  after  this  visitation. 
Since  many  of  the  inmates  would  come  to  penury, 
Latimer  in  vain  advised  that  two  or  three  houses  be 
left  in  each  diocese  to  save  from  such  suffering. 
Monks  less  than  twenty-four  years  of  age  were  set 
at  liberty,  many  of  them  glad  to  be  free  from  their 
vows  taken  at  an  age  too  tender  to  know  their 
significance,  while  others  above  that  age  were  given 
the  choice  of  going  free  or  finding  a  retreat  in  some 
larger  monastery  not  yet  suppressed.  Such  of  these 
as  chose  to  go  into  the  world  were  given  a  suit  of 


172  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

clothes  and  forty  shillings;  to  the  nuns  were  given 
a  gown  and  freedom. 

The  disclosures  of  this  unspeakable  corruption 
joined  with  a  taste  of  such  riches  as  the  suppression 
of  the  smaller  houses  afforded  the  needy  king  and 
his  avaricious  courtiers,  led  most  surely  to  the  next 
step  in  the  drama.  The  larger,  richer  monasteries 
must  also  go.  Further,  many  people  had  come  to 
believe  that  some  of  the  specified  objects  of  their 
foundation  had  no  real  existence,  for  instance,  pur- 
gatory being  relegated  to  limbo  made  prayers  for 
the  dead  meaningless.  It  was  urged  that  if  they 
were  to  be  dissolved  the  property  should  revert  to 
the  heirs  of  the  founders,  but  this  use  of  the  prop- 
erty would  not  be  in  accord  with  the  purpose  of  the 
king  and  of  his  rapacious  court.  They  coveted  the 
fertile  land  and  rich  treasures  garnered  through  gen- 
erations, to  sustain  new  titles  of  nobility.  Many  of 
the  present  aristocracy  date  their  title  and  estates 
from  this  movement,  as  a  few  others  reach  back  to 
the  time  of  the  Conqueror. 

The  conduct  of  the  dissolution  and  care  of  the 
property  were  committed  to  a  specially  ordered 
body  called  the  Court  of  Augmentations.  Since 
many  of  the  larger  monasteries,  as  great  manors, 
had  furnished  soldiers  like  other  important  fiefs,  the 
number  of  soldiers  that  could  be  called  for  was  de- 
pleted. Many  of  the  heads  of  these  institutions  had 
sat  in  the  upper  house  of  Parliament,  these  to  the 
number  of  twenty-eight,  it  is  said,  being  removed, 
the  ecclesiastical  preponderance  of  that  house  per- 
ished. Whatever  good  was  in  those  houses  was 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


173 


brushed  aside  with  their  suppression.  Their  val- 
uable manuscripts  were  destroyed,  scattered  and 
burnt,  thus  causing  irreparable  loss.  The  beautiful 
stained  windows  were  smashed,  the  old  bells  of 
matchless  tones  were  melted  down,  libraries  sold  to 
soap-makers  for  heating  their  vats,  the  mendicants 
at  the  gates  waiting  for  alms  were  driven  thence  with 
the  beadle's  whip.  In  all  it  is  said  there  were  sup- 
pressed six  hundred  forty-five  monasteries,  ninety 
colleges  were  demolished,  two  thousand  three  hun- 
dred seventy-four  free  chapels  and  chantries,  and 
ten  hospitals,  all  yielding  a  revenue  of  one  hundred 
thirty-five  thousand,  five  hundred  twenty-two  pounds, 
eighteen  shillings,  six  pence.  Besides  this  cash  in- 
come there  was  an  immense  amount  of  plate,  cattle, 
timber,  and  other  things  sold,  but  the  rates  were  put 
so  low  that  the  result  of  these  sales  could  not  have 
been  more  than  one-twentieth  of  their  real  value. 
Many  of  the  prelates,  even  the  archbishop,  were 
compelled  by  the  same  imperious  course  to  give  up 
their  chapter  lands,  which  were  turned  over  to  lay- 
men. 

It  was  a  high  carnival  of  legitimatized  robbery. 
In  1539  the  king,  owing  to  the  outcry  against  the 
total  suppression  of  the  monasteries,  reinstated 
thirty-one,  sixteen  of  them  nunneries.  When  the 
report  of  the  visitation  was  read  in  the  House  of 
Commons  there  arose  an  indignant,  spontaneous  cry, 
"Shame,  Shame !  Put  them  down !"  The  promise  of 
Henry  to  establish  bishoprics,  preachers,  readers, 
schools,  students,  and  scholars  was  not  carried  out 
by  him,  but  was  in  part  in  the  following  reign. 


174  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Two  great  evils,  at  least,  arose  in  the  course  of 
suppression.  The  north  and  west  were  strenuous 
for  the  old  faith.  The  outcry  of  the  monks  and 
other  clerics  against  losing  the  monasteries  found 
response  with  the  sturdy  beggars  and  with  very 
many  of  the  common  people,  thus  a  spirit  of  insur- 
rection was  aroused.  It  is  probable  that  the  seculars 
helped  the  monks  and  regulars  to  inflame  the  fears 
and  resentment  of  their  people.  The  malcontents 
set  up  the  monasteries  again,  putting  monks  back 
into  them,  and  insisted  that  the  Princess  Mary 
should  have  the  right  of  succession,  and  that  Luther- 
anism  should  be  crushed.  The  northern  clergy, 
meeting  at  Pomfort,  sent  their  demands  to  Henry. 
They  asked  that  heresy  be  punished  under  the  laws 
of  Henry  Fourth,  that  is,  with  burning  and  without 
mercy,  that  holy  days  be  observed  as  in  times  past. 
They  refused  to  acknowledge  the  king's  headship  in 
the  church,  rejected  his  claim  to  tenths,  objected  to 
the  use  for  temporal  purposes  of  the  property  once 
dedicated  to  spiritual  objects,  considered  dispensa- 
tions to  be  good  if  granted  by  the  pope,  desiring  to 
recognize  him  as  before,  and  deemed  the  correction 
of  deadly  sins  to  belong  to  the  clergy  only.  It  was 
really  a  Catholic  movement  in  the  interests  of  that 
party.  Henry,  at  the  time,  on  their  dispersion 
granted  a  general  pardon  but  later  apprehended  a 
large  number,  executing  many  of  them,  among  whom 
were  six  abbots,  one  prior,  five  priests  and  several 
monks. 

Another  trouble  that  came  with  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries  was  a  great  increase  of  vagabond- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  175 

age  and  crime  among  the  lowly.  Many  of  them  de- 
pendent upon  the  monasteries  had  learned  no  trade 
or  industry,  had  been  fed  with  alms  doled  out  at  the 
gates  or  had  been  employed  by  the  houses  in  some 
menial  labor.  In  the  early  history  of  the  monastic 
system  these  dependents  had  greatly  aided  the 
brothers  in  reducing  wild  land  morasses  and  bogs  to 
productive  farms.  The  great  embankments  of  the 
lower  Thames  were  doubtless  the  work  of  the  mon- 
asteries. These  men  and  women  by  the  ten  thou- 
sand were  now  turned  loose  helplessly  to  drift. 
Crime  and  vice  were  certain  to  follow.  The  au- 
thorities in  those  ages  knew  of  no  other  way  to  deal 
with  these  unfortunate  people  than  to  use  bloody 
severity.  Gibbets  would  have  a  ghastly  row  of 
twenty  or  fifty  at  a  time.  Foreign  travelers  were 
shocked  by  the  sight  of  so  much  thieving  and  mur- 
der, these  not  being  lessened  by  the  severe  punish- 
ments inflicted.  The  steps  thus  far  in  the  move- 
ment had  partially  resulted  in  lawlessness  while 
crime,  alehouses  and  stews  abounded,  dice  and  cards 
were  the  pastime  of  the  masses,  gross  ignorance  and 
low  morals  acted  as  a  paralysis  on  the  nation. 

The  king's  supremacy  was  declared  by  act  of 
Parliament  in  1534,  and  steps  were  taken  at  once  to 
accustom  people  to  it.  St.  Paul's,  London,  was 
the  court  sanctuary,  the  central  point  of 
political  preaching.  The  king  ordered  the  preacher 
at  this  place  to  declare  that  the  bishop  of 
Rome  now  had  no  authority  in  England,  what 
he  had  exercised  there  before  had  been  usurpa- 
tion. Henry  also  directed  that  householders 


176  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

should  teach  their  children  and  servants  this  claim 
and  that  the  nobility  should  widely  talk  the  same 
teachings.  However,  Parliament  and  the  people 
were  not  ready  to  give  the  king  as  unlimited  power 
as  the  papal  authorities  had  claimed.  By  the  means 
used  Henry  purposed  to  release  the  people  and  the 
royal  prerogatives  from  the  thralldom  of  the  cen- 
turies. 

Of  course  Rome  could  not  complacently  accept 
this  culmination  of  English  affairs.  England 
yielded  too  much  prestige  to  papal  claims,  and 
yielded  too  much  treasure  to  be  lost.  Intrigue  was 
to  be  added  to  open  correspondence,  agents  to  fol- 
low legates,  Jesuits  to  bring  their  incomparable  sub- 
tilty  to  other  means  for  holding  the  island  to  the 
old  faith.  It  was  allowed  to  leak  out  that  a  bull 
of  excommunication  which  had  cowed  former  kings 
of  England  was  prepared  by  the  pope,  though  with- 
held for  the  time  being.  This  was  in  1535.  This 
weapon  had  ceased  to  dethrone  kings  or  to  bring  na- 
tions to  their  knees.  Its  preparation  did  not  deter 
Henry  from  his  course  nor  frighten  Cranmer  or 
Cromwell.  Under  the  guidance  of  these  men  the 
reform  went  steadily  if  slowly  forward.  They  had 
to  face  opposition  among  the  prelates  and  in  the 
council.  Both  were  hotly  hated,  Cromwell  for  not 
coming  of  aristocratic  blood,  Cranmer  for  his  per- 
sistent Protestantism.  Still  the  English  church  was 
insistent,  as  was  Henry,  for  the  acceptance  of 
Catholic  tenets.  To  deny  the  real  presence  would 
send  the  heretics  to  the  stake,  while  with  them  would 
go  to  the  scaffold  the  Catholics  who  denied  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  177 

king's  supremacy.  The  religious  consciousness  was 
fettered  both  ways,  the  stout  English  character 
being  able  to  furnish  martyrs  to  each  belief.  The 
foundation  stones  of  religious  liberty  for  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  were  being  cemented  with  blood. 

The  great  leaders  of  the  movement,  Cranmer  from 
his  place  as  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Crom- 
well from  his  place  as  vicar-general  of  the  kingdom, 
sought  to  substitute  a  better  religious  faith  for  the 
old  one.  The  new  forces  of  the  printing  press  were 
made  to  serve.  A  primer  of  devotion  was  issued  in 
1535,  probably  by  royal  impulse,  and  since  the 
Bible  had  been  denied  to  people  lower  than  the  rank 
of  gentleman,  the  primer  was  doubtless  designed  for 
the  lower  classes.  The  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
Ten  Commandments,  and  other  portions  of  Scripture 
were  commended  and  had  explanatory  notes,  with 
prayers,  psalms  and  the  litany.  A  second  edition 
was  soon  demanded,  but  after  Cromwell's  fall  it  was 
recalled.  Still  for  years  books  and  pamphlets  of 
many  kinds  had  been  coming  in  piles  from  the  con- 
tinent. Tyndale's  version  of  the  Bible  had  been 
doing  its  beneficent  work  of  enlightenment,  in  vain 
were  all  efforts  of  the  prelates  and  of  royalty  to  stop 
this  invasion.  The  people  would  read.  Learning 
letters  made  them  rejoice  in  a  new-found  power.  In 
it  was  promise  of  more  rights  and  freedom.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Convocation  in  1536  a  list  of  fifty- 
nine  errors  and  abuses  said  to  be  growing  prevalent 
was  sent  from  the  Lower  House  to  the  Upper  One, 
showing  the  ferment  and  change  going  on.  Of  these 
so-called  errors  one  was  that  the  church  consisted 


178  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

only  of  good  people,  others,  that  ceremonies  not  war- 
ranted by  Scripture  were  of  human  invention  and  so 
could  be  laid  aside,  that  priests  could  marry,  that 
it  was  as  lawful  to  eat  meat  on  Good  Friday  as  on 
any  other  day,  that  auricular  confession,  absolution, 
were  neither  necessary  nor  beneficial,  that  no  rever- 
ence ought  to  be  paid  to  the  images  of  the  saints, 
that  confession  to  God  was  sufficient  for  anybody, 
that  the  Blessed  Virgin  was  no  better  than  any  other 
woman  and  could  not  prevail  with  our  Savior  any 
more  than  any  person  of  her  sex,  that  there  was  no 
purgatory,  that  going  on  pilgrimages,  giving  alms, 
fasting,  need  not  be  used. 

Such  questions  debated  in  private,  discussed  in 
print  and  combated  by  the  Convocation,  were  the 
alphabet  of  Protestant  freedom.  The  Lower  House 
complained  also  that  some  books  examined  by  the 
Convocation  and  found  full  of  heresy  and  heterodoxy 
were  not  expressly  condemned  by  the  bishops,  being 
permitted  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  unlearned 
people,  thus  furnishing  the  vulgar  with  arguments  to 
dispute  against  the  Church.  It  was  doubtless  a  shot 
at  Cranmer,  Latimer  and  Saxton.  Over  against 
this  arraignment  for  heresy  the  friends  of  reform 
in  the  upper  house  of  Convocation,  which  seems  to 
have  been  about  evenly  divided  for  reform  and 
against  it,  subscribed  a  list  of  articles  looking  to- 
ward a  better  religious  life,  the  Scriptures  as  a  rule 
of  faith  being  commended,  also  the  earlier  creeds, 
as  the  Apostles',  Nicene,  Athanasius,  yet  demanding 
uniformity  of  beliefs  and  observances.  They 
claimed  that  remission  of  sins  was  obtained  by  bap- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  179 

tism  to  which  for  salvation  infants  must  be  brought. 
Penance  to  them  was  a  sacrament,  transubstantia- 
tion  allowed  to  be  true,  images  might  remain  in  the 
churches  but  were  not  to  be  worshiped,  nor  saints, 
though  they  were  to  be  honored,  to  put  men  in  mind 
of  spiritual  things  which  they  signified.  So  sprin- 
kling of  holy  water,  using  ashes  on  Ash  Wednesday, 
creeping  to  the  cross  on  Good  Friday  and  certain 
other  ceremonies  were  not  to  be  cast  away.  While 
mostly  giving  up  purgatory,  they  denied  the  pope's 
power  to  set  free  from  it,  looking  askance  also  upon 
prayers  and  alms  for  the  dead.  To  this  list  of  ar- 
ticles forty  prelates  of  the  upper  house  and  fifty 
members  of  the  lower  house  subscribed.  And  still 
for  heresy  the  stake  held  its  burning  victims. 

Along  with  other  imperfect  or  false  notions  prev- 
alent a  great  mass  of  superstitions  was  retained. 
For  the  sake  of  attracting  devotees  to  a  shrine  or 
abbey  or  hermitage,  to  be  enriched  by  offerings  from 
those  making  the  pilgrimage,  a  report  would  be  scat- 
tered among  the  people  that  diseases  could  be  cured, 
projects  could  be  put  forward,  sins  remitted,  or  a 
journey  be  carried  to  a  favorable  end  through  the 
intercession  of  the  saint  whose  shrine  was  thus  hon- 
ored or  by  the  prayers  of  the  attendant  monks.  It 
was  similar  to  the  old  worship  at  wishing  wells  and 
trust  in  amulets.  Indeed  at  that  time  and  later, 
holy  wells  were  invoked.  Apparitions  were  con- 
stantly appearing  and  evil  spirits  were  frequent  at- 
tendants. At  this  time  a  deep  belief  in  witchcraft 
was  also  present,  which  continued  through  the  suc- 
ceeding reigns,  the  laws  harrying  to  death  those  ac- 


180  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

cused  of  this  folly.  The  hanging  of  witches  in 
America  was  only  a  transfer  of  the  laws  and  be- 
liefs from  the  mother  country. 

In  1537,  there  came  out  under  parliamentary  or- 
ders, a  book  designed  to  direct  the  whole  clergy 
in  their  teaching  the  people  and  in  their  own  con- 
duct. As  remission  of  sins  and  salvation  were  to 
be  found  only  in  the  pale  of  the  Catholic  church, 
damnatory  sentence  was  pronounced  upon  all 
heathens,  Jews  and  infidels.  The  words  of  absolu- 
tion at  confession,  the  book  claimed,  ought  to  be 
depended  upon  as  though  they  were  declared  from 
the  sky  and  spoken  by  God  himself.  Stress  too 
great,  the  book  said,  was  laid  upon  unimportant 
ceremonies,  some  people  thinking  it  a  greater  sin  to 
eat  an  egg  on  Friday  than  to  commit  theft  or  for- 
nication. 

Two  years  later  another  statement  of  the  nation's 
beliefs  and  observances  was  thrown  out  with  royal 
sanction,  since  called  "The  Bloody  Six  Articles." 
Being  the  product  of  Roman  predominancy  in 
Council  and  Convocation,  really  a  papal  reaction, 
it  was  in  some  points  antagonistic  to  previous  dec- 
larations. The  real  presence  was  insisted  upon,  com- 
munion in  but  one  kind  declared,  no  marriage  of 
priests  allowed,  private  masses  and  auricular  con- 
fession continued.  For  heresy  the  punishments  were 
confiscation  of  goods  and  the  penalty  of  felony. 
But  those  accused  under  these  articles  could  be 
tried  by  jury,  a  most  beneficial  escape  from  the  nar- 
rowness of  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 

The  Bible  in  English  was  suppressed.     Cranmer 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


181 


strongly  dissented  from  these  backward  movements. 
Latimer,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  and  Saxton  of  Sal- 
isbury resigned  their  sees  and  having  spoken  against 
these  articles  were  thrown  into  prison  as  were  hun- 
dreds of  others  throughout  the  kingdom,  till  Henry, 
at  the  remonstrance  of  Cranmer,  who  still  held  the 
royal  confidence,  and  of  Cromwell,  set  them  free. 
But  under  these  articles  many  were  sent  to  the  stake, 
though  Cromwell  saved  all  he  could.  In  one  day 
four  Dutch  Anabaptists,  three  of  them  women,  after 
publicly  bearing  fagots  to  St.  Paul's,  were  burned 
at  Smithfield.  Cromwell  who  had  so  faithfully 
served  the  king,  now  being  in  the  monarch's  way, 
was  cried  to  a  traitor's  death  by  a  papal  faction. 
Again  permission  was  obtained  for  all  to  read  the 
Bible,  the  king  being  in  favor  of  this  opportunity. 
Bonner,  bishop  of  London,  was  so  liberal  that  he 
ordered  his  clergy  to  read  at  least  a  chapter  a  day 
in  the  New  Testament,  the  pastors  to  compose  their 
own  sermons,  and  that  six  Bibles  should  be  set  up 
for  public  reading  in  St.  Paul's.  The  change  going 
on  was  marked  by  the  setting  forth  of  another  book 
of  doctrine  in  1543,  the  king  himself  writing  the 
preface.  It  was  named  "A  Necessary  Doctrine  and 
Erudition  for  the  Christian  Man."  Actually  it  was 
a  revised,  changed  edition  of  the  institutions  put 
forth  in  1537.  The  book  taught  free  will  and  that 
justification  was  the  making  men  righteous  before 
God,  reconciled,  and  heirs  of  eternal  life.  Prayers 
were  to  be  put  up  in  the  English  so  the  people  would 
know  what  they  were  saying.  In  the  baptism  of 
infants,  the  cross  was  to  be  signed  on  the  forehead 


182  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

and  elsewhere,  salt  was  to  be  put  into  the  mouth, 
the  nostrils  and  ears  to  be  touched  with  spittle,  the 
breast  anointed  with  holy  oil,  while  the  parents 
should  pledge  their  own  belief  and  promise  to  teach 
it  to  the  child.  Singing  and  the  organ  were  to  be 
used  to  incite  the  people  to  devotion,  the  various 
parts  of  the  priest's  apparel  were  to  signify  some 
mystic  meaning.  Sundays  were  to  be  used  in  divine 
service,  various  holy  days  were  commendable  and 
to  be  observed.  In  this  advance,  provision  was  also 
made  for  teaching  the  people  over  all  the  kingdom 
by  means  of  itinerating  preachers,  the  diffusion  of 
homilies,  sermons  and  explanations.  Plays,  farces, 
and  interludes  burlesquing  the  monks  were  to  cease. 
This  book  Cranmer  signed  though  dissatisfied  with 
the  slow  progress  of  the  Reformation. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  relation  of  England  to  the  papacy  during  the 
later  years  of  Henry's  reign  presents  a  curious 
spectacle.  Under  certain  conditions  the  pope  had 
promised  Henry  a  divorce  from  Catherine.  At- 
tempts at  different  times  to  reconcile  the  papacy  to 
the  king  had  failed.  The  papal  bull,  held  in  secret 
for  some  time,  was  in  1538  thrown  out  against  the 
strenuous  king.  The  king  was  granted  ninety  days 
to  appear  at  Rome  in  person,  or  by  proxy,  to  an- 
swer for  his  course  and  in  case  of  failure  the  king- 
dom was  to  be  put  under  interdict,  Henry  was  to  be 
declared  infamous,  and  the  issue  of  Anne  Boleyn 
illegitimate.  Men  were  to  have  no  dealings  with 
him,  all  the  clergy  were  commanded  to  go  out  of  the 
kingdom  within  five  days  except  enough  to  baptize 
infants  and  give  the  sacrament  to  the  dying,  all 
noblemen  were  charged  to  rise  in  arms  against  him. 
If  other  kingdoms  traded  or  had  intercourse  with 
him  they  were  also  to  be  put  under  interdict,  and 
were  called  to  make  war  upon  him  and  break  all 
treaties  with  him.  Such  fulminations  were  little 
dreaded  any  longer  in  England,  for  all  the  bishops 
signed  a  declaration  against  these  papal  pretentions, 
declaring  war  on  papal  jurisdiction.  The  con- 
tinental powers  were  heedless  of  the  injunctions  to 
them  of  the  pope.  There  was  no  progress  to 
Canossa  for  this  Henry,  no  waiting  barefoot  in  the 

snow  for  absolution. 

183 


184  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Some  efforts  were  made  by  the  German  Protes- 
tant princes  and  by  leaders  in  England  to  com- 
bine the  reformers  of  both  countries  into  a  defen- 
sive body  to  resist  in  arms  the  Romish  forces  sent 
against  them.  But  Henry,  always  shy  of  the  Lu- 
therans, temporized  because  Charles  Fifth  was  uncle 
to  Catherine.  As  time  passed  Henry's  shifting 
course  caused  distrust  among  the  sturdy  Germans, 
the  reform  in  England  not  proceeding  fast  enough 
to  suit  them.  Melanchthon  had  joined  his  schol- 
arly arguments  in  vain  with  those  sent  by  the  Ger- 
man princes. 

Through  these  changing  times  a  constant  attri- 
tion took  place  between  the  legal  proceedings  of 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  and  of  the  temporal  jurisdic- 
tion. In  1530  the  Commons  complained  to  the  king 
that  the  clergy  made  laws  in  conflict  with  the  con- 
stitution, and  the  king,  finding  it  true,  extorted  from 
them  a  promise  to  keep  their  oath  to  him.  They 
refused  in  the  Convocation  to  abrogate  any  of  the 
old  canon  laws,  yet  promised  to  make  no  new  ones 
contrary  to  the  constitution.  Of  course  the  clergy 
were  sharply  opposed  to  such  curtailment  of  their 
prerogatives  but  in  vain.  An  amazing  privilege  of 
the  ecclesiastics,  termed  benefits  of  clergy,  had  been 
existent  through  generations  past  and  now  steps 
were  taken  to  change  it  so  that  all  subjects  would 
be  placed  under  one  law.  By  that  custom  or  law 
one  convicted  of  a  crime  could,  by  proving  himself 
a  cleric,  be  saved  from  punishment  by  the  temporal 
powers.  To  correct  such  abuses  was  a  study  of 
statesmen.  In  Elizabeth's  reign,  offenders  were  not 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


185 


turned   over  to  the  church  courts  but  branded  on 
the  cheek  and  sent  away. 

In  Scotland  a  most  remarkable  preacher  came  to 
the  front,  John  Knox,  who  about  154&  professed 
himself  a  Protestant.  He  was  of  the  middle  class, 
thoroughly  educated  in  the  University  of  Glasgow 
where  later  he  taught.  Soon  after  professing 
Protestantism  he  began  preaching  and  in  some  of 
the  turbulence  of  the  times  was  captured  by  the 
French  at  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews,  and  while  serv- 
ing at  an  oar  in  their  galleys  encouraged  the  re- 
formers in  Scotland  with  his  pen.  In  1549  Knox 
was  set  at  liberty,  and  spent  some  years  in  England 
and  on  the  continent  previous  to  his  herculean  labors 
for  the  Reformation  in  Scotland.  After  the  death 
of  James,  the  queen  regent,  an  ardent  Catholic,  per- 
sistently stood  in  the  path  of  reform,  putting  in  her 
claim,  like  Henry  Eighth,  of  royal  prerogative,  but 
among  her  subjects  an  opinion  was  arising  that  if 
a  majority  of  the  people  desired  a  change  they  could 
enter  upon  it  themselves.  They  were  asking  for 
church  services  in  the  vernacular,  and  for  reform  in 
the  lives  of  the  prelates.  But  as  in  England,  the 
way  to  these  and  other  reforms  was  a  way  of  blood. 
A  decrepit  old  priest,  Walter  Mill,  quit  mass  and 
began  preaching  against  that,  also  against  the  wor- 
ship of  images  and  the  corporal  presence,  the  seven 
sacraments  and  pilgrimages,  claiming  the  priests 
had  a  right  to  marry,  condemning  the  office  of  bishop, 
and  went  holding  meetings  in  private  houses. 
The  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  had  him  brought  to 
trial  where  he  ably  defended  his  work,  but  was  or- 


186  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

dered  to  be  burnt.  No  executioner  could  be  found 
to  light  the  fire  till  a  servant  of  the  archbishop  con- 
sented to  serve  as  such,  the  archbishop  furnishing 
cords  from  his  pavilion  to  bind  the  poor  old  cripple. 

Petitions  for  reform  to  the  queen  regent  receiving 
no  response,  a  group  of  the  nobility  entered  into  an 
agreement  that  things  should  be  so  far  reformed  that 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  used  in  England  should 
be  used  in  Scotland  and  that  meetings  might  be  held 
in  private  houses.  A  Council  of  the  clergy  moved 
toward  certain  reforms,  the  Parliament,  being  in  the 
hands  of  the  Protestants,  demanded  that  the  papal 
religion  be  discarded,  and  that  the  ecclesiastical 
revenues  of  the  old  system  be  used  to  support  the 
ministry  of  the  new  system.  But  there  was  to  be 
no  toleration,  since  attendance  upon  mass  was,  for 
the  first  time  to  be  forfeit  of  goods  with  corporal 
punishment,  for  the  second  offense,  banishment,  and 
for  the  third,  death.  A  plan  of  education  that  put 
a  school  in  every  parish  was  formulated,  in  which 
were  taught  religion,  grammar  and  Latin,  plans 
which  have  been  practically  carried  out  to  the  pres- 
ent. 

Mobs  clamored  for  reform  and  the  Protestant 
clergy  with  the  nobles  appealed  to  arms  to  protect 
themselves  in  their  faith.  The  monasteries  and  clois- 
ters were  by  act  of  Parliament  suppressed,  but  the 
hot-hearted  people  preceded  the  committee  and  in 
various  ways  demolished  these  hotbeds  of  corruption. 
And  not  stopping  with  these  houses,  the  mob  tore 
down  the  churches,  deeming  any  building  with  a 
steeple  a  place  of  idolatry,  filching  the  plate,  bells 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  187 

and  other  valuables,  and  selling  them  at  the  public 
market.  In  one  of  the  appeals  to  arms,  the  dis- 
solute Mary  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  nobles,  but 
escaping,  made  her  way  to  English  territory  and  put 
herself  under  Elizabeth's  protection.  The  Jesuit 
plans  and  plots  thickened  about  the  exiled  queen 
until  Elizabeth,  to  protect  her  crown  and  kingdom, 
allowed  Mary's  trial  and  execution. 

As  in  England,  the  church  properties  conveyed 
to  the  crown  were  largely  caught  up  by  the  courtiers 
so  that  the  crown  lost  much  of  its  income.  During 
the  minority  of  the  young  James,  the  government 
was  carried  on  by  a  regency  of  the  powerful  nobles, 
the  prince  evincing  a  purpose  to  rid  the  country  of 
Jesuits,  seminaries  and  priests,  and  desiring  the 
people  to  conform  to  one  rule  of  church  life.  As  he 
assumed  control  of  royal  affairs  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  century,  he  fretted  deeply  like  Elizabeth  under 
the  stout  purposes  of  the  ultra  reformers. 

In  Ireland,  the  situation  was  very  unsettled.  The 
mass  of  the  Irish  people  were  faithful  to  the  Catholic 
service  while  the  English  of  the  Pale,  the  strip  of 
country  occupied  by  them,  acknowledged  in  their 
local  Parliament  the  royal  supremacy  and  the  sep- 
aration from  Rome.  When  the  great  wealth  taken 
from  the  knights  of  St.  John  was  passed  into  the 
royal  exchequer,  it  was  ordered,  as  a  way  to  put 
some  of  it  into  use,  that  vicarages  should  be  built  for 
every  parish  in  Ireland.  The  fiery  Irish  people 
would  hardly  follow  the  reform  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices held  by  their  oppressors.  Indeed,  among  the 
real  Irish  people  the  Reformation  never  made  much 


188  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

progress.     At  those  times  as  ever  since  they  have 
continued  true,  loyal  children  of  the  pope. 

In  1547  Henry  Eighth  saw  that  death  was  crowd- 
ing nigh  him.  In  Henry's  last  address  to  his  Parlia- 
ment, he  complained  of  the  bitter  dissentions  rife, 
saying  the  Scriptures  had  been  given  to  the  nation 
to  inform  the  conscience,  to  teach  families  and  chil- 
dren and  not  to  cause  disputes.  He  did  not  see  that 
out  of  this  chaos  of  controversy  were  emerging  prog- 
ress and  liberty.  Henry  had  done  three  great  things 
for  England,  separated  the  nation  from  the  papacy, 
dissolved  the  monasteries,  and  given  the  Bible  to  the 
people.  These  events  during  his  long  reign,  high- 
handed, tyrannical  though  he  was  in  many  respects, 
were  of  vast  worth  to  England.  By  some  admirers 
he  has  been  called  "The  Father  of  His  Country."  If 
the  people  feared  him  they  loved  him.  Even  the 
ultra  reformers  showed  respect  and  affection  for  him. 
His  country  was  ever  foremost  in  his  purposes. 
Wolsey  and  Cromwell,  though  he  doomed  them  to  un- 
merited death,  were  able  statesmen  whose  great  abil- 
ities were  at  the  service  of  the  monarch,  and  history, 
while  it  will  execrate  his  treatment  of  them,  can  re- 
joice that  he  had  command  of  their  wider  vision. 
Cranmer,  of  less  virile  nature  than  either  of  those 
men,  was  so  trusted  by  the  king  that  his  influence  for 
reform  and  the  quieter  virtues  of  Christianity  was 
measureless. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Edward  Sixth,  the  boy  king,  came  to  the 
crown  in  1547.  By  the  will  of  Henry  Eighth  the 
government  during  Edward's  minority  was  com- 
mitted to  a  commission  of  sixteen  about  evenly 
divided  between  Catholics  and  Protestants.  The 
king's  maternal  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Hertford, 
held  first  place  in  this  commission,  and  being 
a  reformer,  exerted  his  commanding  influence 
upon  the  new  way.  Edward,  now  nine  years  of  age, 
though  weak  in  body  was  of  most  precocious  mind. 
He  was  thoroughly  taught  the  principles  of  Protest- 
antism. The  late  king  had  taken  great  care  that  not 
only  Edward,  but  also  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  should 
be  given  the  best  instruction  possible  to  obtain. 
Hertford  desired  with  Cranmer  from  his  influential 
place  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  push  the 
Reformation  with  rapid  advances,  but  the  nation  was 
hardly  prepared  to  follow.  Possibly  one-half  or 
more  of  the  people  were  like  a  part  of  the  commission, 
yet  strongly  of  Catholic  practice.  Lord  Wroietsley, 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  became  in  the  Council  and  in  the 
nation  at  large  a  leader  of  this  section. 

The  Lord  Protector,  on  assuming  power  had  been 
devout  in  prayer,  being  so  trusted  by  the  people  as 
to  be  called  "The  Good  Duke."  In  attempting  to 
make  a  treaty  with  Scotland  to  include  a  marriage 
between  the  Scot  Princess  Mary,  and  Edward,  he 

pointed  out  the  un-Christian  spirit  in  the  antagonism 

189 


190  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

between  the  two  nations,  which  could  now  be  allayed 
by  this  marriage,  and  with  God  for  defense  they  could 
thus  united  defy  all  foreign  attacks.  The  state 
papers  of  this  period  were  marked  by  a  devout  spirit 
while  prominent  commissioners  on  important  missions 
prayed  God  to  go  with  them.  On  the  young  king's 
coronation  three  swords  were  carried  before  him  to 
represent  the  three  kingdoms  of  his  domain,  England, 
France  and  Ireland,  and  he  called  for  the  fourth  one, 
the  Bible,  which  he  said  was  the  sword  of  the  Spirit. 
The  Commission  set  aside  Henry's  request  for  the 
repose  of  his  soul,  six  hundred  pounds  a  year  con- 
ferred upon  certain  clerics  of  St.  George's  chapel  to 
say  masses  and  to  do  four  solemn  abits  a  year. 
They  ordered  also  the  omission  of  the  religious  ob- 
servance since  that  body  did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy 
of  such  services.  Refugees  oversea  receiving  inspira- 
tion from  the  continental  reformers  urged  more  rapid 
progress  toward  radical  reform.  On  the  other  hand 
the  monks  scattered  from  the  suppressed  monasteries 
were  a  sore  means  of  discontent  among  those  with 
whom  they  had  not  lost  influence,  in  this  way  holding 
back  the  advance  that  otherwise  could  have  been 
made,  as  well  as  keeping  many  ready  for  the  Cath- 
olic reaction  promised  to  be  brought  in  by  Mary. 
The  Commission  had  the  laws  about  heresy  and  about 
the  Lollards  repealed,  as  also  the  Bloody  Six  Articles. 
For  the  time  auricular  confession  was  left  indifferent, 
a  thing  characterized  by  Hume  as  "the  most  powerful 
engine  that  was  ever  contrived  for  degrading  the  laity 
and  giving  their  spiritual  guardians  ascendency  over 
them." 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  191 

At  this  time  the  object  of  religion  was  well  stated: 
"It  is  chiefly  designed  for  perfecting  the  nature  of 
man,  for  improving  his  faculties,  governing  his  ac- 
tions and  securing  the  peace  of  every  man's  con- 
science, and  of  the  societies  of  mankind  in  common." 
Some  homilies  of  which  Cranmer  was  mostly  the 
author  were  given  the  parish  ministers  designed  to 
furnish  them  the  facts  and  give  upward  impulse,  for 
the  progress  of  truth  was  greatly  hindered  by  ig- 
norant and  incompetent  preachers.  These  homilies 
taught  the  people  the  importance  of  using  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  misery  caused  by  sin,  that  salvation  was  by 
Christ  through  true  and  living  faith,  the  place  of 
good  works  was  stated,  the  people  were  warned 
against  swearing,  perjury,  apostasy,  foulness,  and 
fear  of  death,  and  were  taught  obedience  to  laws  and 
magistrates.  Images  calling  for  pilgrimages  were 
to  be  taken  down,  in  no  case  being  allowed  except  to 
refresh  the  memory.  The  Bible  and  the  paraphrases 
of  Erasmus  were  to  be  put  into  the  churches.  All 
fixtures  of  feigned  miracles  were  to  be  destroyed. 
Two  significant  restrictions  were  named,  that  clerics 
should  not  frequent  ale  houses,  and  that  people  at 
enmity  with  their  neighbors  should  not  come  to  the 
communion.  Chantry  priests  were  to  become  school- 
masters, teaching  the  young  to  read  and  write.  Such 
colleges  and  chantries  as  had  been  spared  by  Henry 
were  granted  by  Parliament  to  Edward. 

As  in  the  preceding  reign  passions  ran  high. 
Many  people  became  iconoclastic,  in  mobs  clearing 
the  churches  of  images  and  other  things  they  deemed 
idolatrous.  Vehement  preachers  like  Doctor  John 


192  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Harley  of  Magdalene  College,  Oxford,  declared 
against  the  pope  and  the  old  beliefs.  Harley  being 
examined  by  the  college  authorities  was  sent  to  Lon- 
don as  a  heretic  but  was  there  privately  dismissed. 
In  the  second  year  of  the  king's  reign,  the  images  not 
having  been  cleared  from  all  the  churches,  the  Pro- 
tector ordered  them  all  down  and  their  adornments 
turned  over  to  the  king's  use.  At  the  same  time  the 
Catholics  were  active,  Gardiner  defending  the  use  of 
images  and  of  holy  water  against  which  Ridley  had 
been  preaching.  Two  books,  one  claiming  Anne 
Askew's  death  to  be  martyrdom,  the  other  on 
Luther's  death,  were  offensive  to  the  Catholics  and 
Gardiner  also  appealed  against  them.  This  prelate 
on  the  visitation  being  sent  to  him,  refused  compli- 
ance, and  being  warned  wrote  in  his  defense  that  he 
had  observed  the  constitution,  the  book  "Erudition," 
the  acts  of  Parliament,  the  homilies  and  injunction 
of  the  visitors,  yet  he  was  put  into  the  fleet.  The 
bishop  of  London,  also  being  incarcerated  for  non- 
compliance,  took  down  on  his  release  the  images  of 
Jesus,  Mary,  John  and  Paul  from  all  the  churches 
of  the  metropolis. 

As  under  Henry,  Cambridge  University  continued 
to  lead  in  the  spirit  of  enlightenment  and  reform,  ed- 
ucating and  sending  out  men  who  by  their  teachings 
and  martyrdom  were  to  sustain  the  Reformation  in 
England  and  beyond.  Learned  people  steadily  ac- 
cepting the  reformed  views  were  becoming  leaders  in 
the  national  progress.  Cranmer  finding  that  some 
highly  educated  Germans  were  being  persecuted  in 
their  own  country  invited  them  to  England  and  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  193 

valuable  help  they  rendered  was  very  great.  Martin 
Bucer  was  given  the  chair  of  divinity  at  Cambridge, 
Peter  Martyr,  a  Florentine,  the  same  at  Oxford,  and 
Paulus  Fagius,  the  chair  of  Hebrew  at  Cambridge. 
John  Alasco,  a  Polish  nobleman  of  reformed  views, 
also  made  welcome,  soon  became  pastor  of  a  congre- 
gation of  refugees  in  London. 

Since  much  diversity  of  service  had  grown  up,  and 
only  uniformity  was  desired,  toleration  not  even 
being  dreamed  of,  a  book  of  liturgy  was  ordered  to 
be  used  in  all  the  churches.  This  prepared  with 
great  care,  was  sent  out  in  January,  1548,  really 
being  the  first  book  of  Common  Prayer.  It  was  ar- 
ranged for  the  Psalms  to  be  said  in  their  order,  the 
lessons  were  to  be  copied  from  the  English  Bible, 
making  them  simple  and  easy  of  comprehension. 
Some  objections  being  made  to  this  book,  a  revised 
edition  was  sent  out  four  years  later,  mostly  in  the 
form  it  has  persisted  in  to  the  present.  Possibly 
next  to  the  Bible  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  has 
had  most  to  do  in  shaping  the  uses  and  customs  con- 
nected with  the  religious  life  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  In  this  revised  edition  confession  and  absolu- 
tion were  left  out,  as  other  steps  were  taken  for  re- 
form, but  many  rites  and  ceremonies  remained.  Lit- 
urgy connected  with  communion  was  simplified  and 
that  sacrament  was  to  be  given  in  both  kinds.  In 
baptism  the  anointing  and  exorcism  were  not  re- 
quired, nor  prayers  for  the  dead  in  the  burial  service. 
The  doctrine  of  purgatory  was  discarded.  An  order 
making  the  new  liturgy  obligatory  upon  all  came  out 
from  the  court.  The  permission  for  the  clergy  to 


194  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

marry  was  a  most  important  step  toward  better 
morals,  the  rector  having  the  amenities  of  a  home, 
cared  for  by  one  interested  in  it,  the  natural  joys 
and  impulses  arising  from  family  life  coming  to  him, 
while  women  as  wives  of  clergymen  were  aided  in  the 
Christian  virtues. 

Heated  debate  and  acrimonious  contention  con- 
tinued during  this  period  about  the  eucharist.  The 
Catholic  party  was  persistent  for  the  real  presence, 
while  a  strong  party  of  unbiased  thinkers  departed 
far  from  the  notion  of  transubstantiation.  Ridley 
headed  a  disputation  before  the  royal  Commission 
contending  for  two  points,  first  that  transubstantia- 
tion could  not  be  proved  from  the  Bible,  or  from  the 
Fathers  a  thousand  years  after  Christ,  second,  that 
at  the  communion  there  was  no  oblation  or  sacrifice 
except  by  way  of  remembrance  of  Christ's  death. 
In  the  Book  of  Prayer  in  the  first  edition  the  form 
ran:  "The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which 
was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy  body  and  soul  unto 
everlasting  life."  In  the  second  edition  it  was 
changed  to  this:  "Take,  eat  this  in  remembrance 
that  Christ  died  for  thee  and  feed  on  Him  in  thy 
heart  by  faith  with  thanksgiving."  In  the  revised 
edition  the  wine  was  given  with  this  formula: 
"Drink  this  in  remembrance  that  Christ's  blood  was 
shed  for  thee,  and  be  thankful." 

A  third  group  of  beliefs  and  practices  began  to 
take  form  in  Edward's  time  which  have  persisted  to 
our  own  day,  compelling  a  kind  of  triangular  form 
to  the  religious  parties  of  England.  This  wing  of 
the  religious  life  was  not  satisfied  that  the  Anglican 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  195 

church  retained  so  many  ceremonies  of  the  medieval 
church  but  rather  sought  simplicity  of  service  and 
doctrine.  Because  of  their  persistent  appeals  to  the 
Bible,  and  especially  to  the  Gospels,  they  were 
dubbed  "Gospellers,"  and  were  the  parents  of  present 
non-conformity  in  England.  They  bore  various 
names  and  believed  various  doctrines.  Kent  seemed 
a  very  hotbed  of  these  dissidents,  for  in  it  were  found 
Anabaptists,  who  did  not  believe  in  infant  baptism 
and  would  baptize  such  the  second  time,  Pelagians, 
Freewillers,  those  believing  children  were  not  born 
to  original  sin,  others  who  thought  it  sin  to  play 
games  for  money,  while  some  gathered  for  worship  on 
other  than  holydays,  and  others  still  would  not  kneel 
at  communion.  Unitarians  were  also  in  evidence, 
prominent  among  these  being  Joan  of  Kent,  who  in- 
sisted that  Jesus  did  not  take  any  of  the  flesh  of  the 
Virgin.  Being  arrested,  tried,  and  condemned  as  a 
heretic,  she  said  that  Anne  Askew  was  burned  for  a 
piece  of  bread  and  now  she  was  to  suffer  the  same 
way  for  a  piece  of  flesh.  To  the  honor  of  the  boy 
king  and  to  the  infamy  of  the  enlightened  Cranmer  it 
must  be  told  that  the  king  tried  to  save  Joan  from 
the  sentence  of  burning  at  Smithfield,  but  under  the 
importunity  of  the  archbishop,  Edward  in  tears 
finally  signed  the  death  warrant. 

Nonconformity  was  also  persistent  with  the 
Princess  Mary,  who,  a  stout  Catholic,  refused  alike  to 
use  the  Anglican  service  or  to  give  up  her  own. 
They  tried  intimidation,  the  young  king  tried  per- 
sonal importunities,  her  chaplains  were  sent  to 
prison,  but  the  stout  Tudor  nature  could  assert  itself 


196  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

in  religious  matters  as  well  as  in  political  ones.  Rid- 
ley being  sent  to  remonstrate  with  her  desired  to 
preach  to  her,  but  she  repelled  him.  In  other  high 
places  the  laws  were  not  observed ;  Bonner,  bishop  of 
London,  not  fully  using  the  liturgy,  being  called  to 
account  and  showing  an  insolent  spirit,  was  deprived 
of  his  bishopric  and  cast  into  prison,  where  he  re- 
mained until  the  accession  of  Mary. 

A  commission  of  thirty-two,  clerics  and  laity,  hav- 
ing been  appointed  early  in  Edward's  reign  to  draw 
out  a  body  of  church  laws  from  the  mass  of  canonical 
ones,  finished  their  work  in  1553,  but  this  code,  not 
having  received  the  royal  signature,  never  became  a 
law.  In  this  code  one  accused  of  heresy  and  in  some 
other  cases  could  appeal  from  one  court  to  another 
up  to  the  king,  which  was  a  most  important  step 
toward  protection  of  rights,  for  heresy  still,  includ- 
ing blasphemy,  could  be  pursued  to  death's  punish- 
ment. Only  two  sacraments  were  recognized,  com- 
munion and  baptism.  Witchcraft,  idolatry,  consult- 
ing conjurers,  and  divining  by  lot  were  to  be  pun- 
ished at  the  discretion  of  an  ecclesiastical  judge. 
Penalties,  both  ecclesiastical  and  temporal,  were 
named  against  those  guilty  of  polygamy,  foulness, 
priestly  incontinence,  and  similar  crimes.  Ordeals 
were  denied  and  purgation  carefully  guarded.  Sing- 
ing of  psalms  was  permitted  but  well  hedged  about. 

The  doctrines  of  the  Established  church  were  put 
into  authoritative  form  in  1553,  couched  in  forty- two 
articles,  stating  the  fundamental  Scriptural  teach- 
ings in  succinct,  definite  language.  They  affirm  the 
unity  of  God,  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  his  resurrec- 
tion, justification  by  faith,  predestination,  baptism 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  197 

and  communion  in  two  sacraments,  the  royal  suprem- 
acy under  Christ  of  the  English  church,  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  oaths.  These  forty-two  articles  slightly 
modified  and  reduced  to  thirty-nine,  are  the  articles 
now  giving  shape  to  Anglican  belief.  They  are 
practically  considered  infallible  since  no  one  can 
be  received  into  the  communion  of  that  church  with- 
out subscribing  to  those  articles.  Yet  modified  by 
various  non-conforming  sects,  they  are  practically 
the  statement  of  faith  of  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
Along  with  other  evidences  of  evolution  was  the 
growing  power  of  conscience  enlightened  by  Scrip- 
ture teachings,  for  the  people  were  hungrily  reading 
the  Bible  and  slowly  conforming  to  its  precepts.  All 
restrictions  of  printing  or  of  reading  the  precious 
Book  were  removed,  the  people  eagerly  making  use  of 
the  Great  Bible  and  the  Paraphrases  of  Erasmus 
that  had  been  set  up  in  the  churches,  and  during  the 
reign  of  six  years,  seven  editions  of  the  Great  Bible, 
three  of  Mathew's,  two  of  Coverdale's,  and  thirty-five 
of  the  New  Testament,  were  issued.  Bucer  wrote  to 
the  king  urging  that  he  stop  sequestrating  the  prop- 
erty of  colleges  and  churches,  as  the  injury  of  these 
was  a  detriment  to  the  nation.  The  rapacious 
courtiers  had  so  filched  the  property  of  the  universi- 
ties that  they  were  greatly  crippled  and  learning  ran 
low.  The  gentry,  following  the  courtiers,  had  laid 
hold  upon  the  endowment  of  the  grammar  schools  so 
that  the  youth  were  not  prepared  and  sent  up  to  the 
universities.  Even  the  vicarages  were  not  spared  by 
the  courtiers.  Edward  did  much  to  lessen  the  dis- 
tressing situation  by  founding  new  grammar  schools, 
and  a  college  at  Galway,  Ireland.  He,  like  Charle- 


198  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

magne,  had  a  school  in  his  court  to  teach  those  under 
his  immediate  touch.  When  week-day  preaching  was 
set  up  at  the  market  towns,  crowds  of  eager  people 
flocked  to  hear  it,  for  Edward,  having  six  chaplains, 
kept  two  by  himself  and  sent  out  the  other  four  on 
itinerary  preaching  to  the  people.  Durham  was 
made  a  county  palatine  and  granted  to  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland.  A  son  of  this  duke  had  married 
the  Lady  Jane  Grey,  cousin  of  Edward,  and  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land, now  Lord  Protector,  sought  Edward's  consent 
to  have  her  succeed  him  on  the  throne,  notwithstand- 
ing the  will  of  Henry  Eighth  naming  the  Princess 
Mary  as  his  successor.  As  the  Lady  Jane  was  a 
Protestant  and  Mary  a  Catholic,  the  dying  king  was 
easily  won  to  the  plan,  and  while  the  chief  justice, 
Cranmer,  with  other  leading  men  at  first  demurred, 
finally  they  all  consented,  all,  the  Privy  Council, 
Judges,  archbishop  and  others,  signing  a  bill  of 
articles  establishing  the  plan. 

On  July  6,  1553,  Edward  having  been  king  for 
six  years,  and  yet  not  sixteen,  died.  It  is  usually 
claimed  that  the  Reformation  took  definite  form  dur- 
ing his  short  reign,  but  this  period  was  too  short  to 
make  great  changes  in  the  nation.  The  sorrow  to  a 
land  whose  king  is  a  child  was  vividly  suffered  by 
England.  The  disgust  of  the  better  element  of  re- 
form at  the  unblushing  rapacity  evinced  by  the  lead- 
ing men,  and  the  not  groundless  complaints  of  the 
Catholics,  helped  prepare  the  hearty  reception  of 
Mary  to  the  exclusion  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  under  the 
specious  plan  of  Northumberland. 


CHAPTER  XX 

It  became  apparent  at  once  that  Mary  on  her 
accession  was  determined  to  stop  all  reformatory 
measures,  and  to  restore  Catholic  rights  and  doc- 
trines. This  is  not  strange  since  she  had  been 
strictly  taught  in  those  beliefs  under  her  Spanish 
mother,  as  Edward  had  been  taught  Protestant 
beliefs  under  direction  of  his  mother's  Protes- 
tant relatives.  The  queen,  like  her  late  brother, 
was  of  feeble  frame,  possibly  ill  health  aided 
in  rendering  her  peevish  and  stubborn.  Protestant 
and  Catholic  alike  helped  her  to  the  throne, 
the  Suffolk  Protestants  claiming  that  she  promised 
not  to  make  any  alterations  in  religion.  She 
had  Catholic  rites  done  at  Edward's  funeral,  dirige, 
and  requiem  sung  in  Latin,  though  later  for- 
bade prayers  for  her  brother's  soul.  At  her  corona- 
tion also  the  ceremonies  were  those  of  a  Catholic  cult. 
At  once  she  had  Bishops  Bonner,  Gardiner  and 
others,  lying  in  prison,  released  and  restored  to  their 
sees,  depriving  those  placed  in  the  seats  of  these  men 
during  Edward's  time.  Shortly  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
Ridley,  Hooper,  and  others  were  thrown  into  prison, 
some  fled  oversea,  the  congregations  of  foreigners 
were  broken  up,  these  people  and  their  pastors  being 
given  twenty-four  hours  to  leave  the  kingdom.  The 
bones  of  Bucer  and  Fagius  were  dug  up  and  burned 
while  those  of  Peter  Martyr's  wife  were  also  dug  up 

from  the  churchyard  and  buried  in  a  dunghill.     The 

199 


200  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

duke  of  Northumberland  and  other  prominent  men 
leading  the  movement  in  favor  of  Lady  Jane  Grey 
were  executed  as  traitors. 

Parliament  annulled  certain  laws  of  preceding 
reigns,  that  by  which  Catherine  had  been  divorced, 
thus  making  Mary  legitimate  but  denying  that  right 
to  Elizabeth,  and  a  new  oath  of  fealty  was  exacted. 
The  former  liturgies  were  forbidden,  Scripture  verses 
painted  on  the  church  walls  were  erased,  altars  re- 
stored, images  set  up,  masses  renewed,  and  most  of 
the  people  conformed.  Mary,  they  said,  was  their 
rightful  sovereign  and  they  would  obey  her.  The 
laws  of  Edward's  reign,  those  against  premunire, 
felony  and  treason  were  repealed,  as  were  those  al- 
lowing priests  to  marry.  The  pressure  put  upon  the 
universities  was  yielded  to,  Catholic  rites  restored, 
reforming  professors  and  fellows  set  adrift,  among 
the  latter  being  Fox,  who  would  later  write  the  his- 
tory of  the  martyrs  in  this  reign.  The  bishop  of 
York,  like  Cranmer,  was  deprived  of  his  seat.  The 
refugees  to  the  continent  numbering  hundreds  gath- 
ered in  the  cities  of  Antwerp,  Strasburg,  Frankfort, 
Zurich,  Cologne  and  others,  setting  up  Protestant 
worship  and  being  aided  with  funds  and  sympathy 
from  England.  The  queen  ordered  the  question  of 
transubstantiation  to  be  debated  in  the  Convocation 
and  settled  into  canon  law,  and  the  Catechism  sent 
out  in  the  preceding  reign  to  be  suppressed. 

The  pope  at  once  began  hoping  and  planning  for 
the  return  of  England  to  the  papal  fold,  sending 
secret  emissaries  to  the  queen,  who  assured  him  that 
she  desired  to  have  the  country  reconciled  to  Rome. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  201 

To  aid  in  accomplishing  this  she  asked  to  have  Reg- 
inald Pole,  that  relative  of  Henry  driven  from  Eng- 
land, sent  to  her  with  legatine  powers,  and  though 
many  of  Mary's  councilors  feared  to  have  this  done, 
yet,  after  some  delay,  he  was  permitted  to  return  to 
England  and  as  soon  as  Cranmer  was  burned  Pole 
accepted  the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury.  Much 
would  depend  upon  the  husband  Mary  might  choose 
and  for  so  fair  a  mate  as  the  queen  of  England  would 
be,  with  the  power  and  riches  of  the  great  kingdom 
with  her,  there  would  be  many  suitors.  At  that  time 
Spain  was  by  far  the  most  extensive  and  powerful  of 
all  European  nations,  so  that  Mary  could  well  be  flat- 
tered that  the  Spanish  prince,  Philip,  son  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  Fifth,  should  seek  her  in  marriage. 
Dread  and  fear  arose  in  England  over  the  match  but 
it  was  made,  the  prince  with  his  mule  loads  of  bullion 
to  corrupt  Parliament  and  the  clergy  coming  to  meet 
his  bride.  She  was  thirty-seven,  he  twenty-five. 
She  was  an  English  Tudor,  he  a  dashing  young  Span- 
iard. 

But  in  spite  of  his  gold  and  his  iridescent  hopes 
Parliament  enacted  that  the  officers  of  the  church  as 
well  as  all  others  of  the  realm  should  remain  at  the 
disposal  of  the  queen.  The  dislike  of  the  Spanish 
match  and  fear  for  the  reforms  needed  caused  an 
insurrection  in  Protestant  Kent,  under  Sir  Thomas 
Wyat.  The  Devonshire  people  fell  in  with  the  rebels 
but  the  rising  was  futile,  the  majority  of  people 
recognizing  the  legality  of  Mary's  sovereignty  and 
sustaining  her  on  their  consciences.  Death  came  to 
the  innocent  Lady  Jane  Grey,  to  Wyat,  Suffolk  and 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

to  many  of  their  prominent  followers,  while  for  a 
time  a  spirit  of  collusion  endangered  even  Eliza- 
beth. 

Mary,  after  this  fiasco,  was  evidently  more  secure 
than  before  in  pushing  popish  reaction.  Orders  were 
soon  sent  out  to  prelates  to  see  that  ecclesiastical 
laws  in  force  in  Henry  Eighth's  time  be  put  into 
active  use  now,  if  they  were  not  in  opposition  to  the 
laws  of  the  kingdom.  A  commission  consisting  of 
Bishops  Gardiner,  Bonner,  and  Tonstal  was  ap- 
pointed to  "convert"  the  archbishop  of  York,  Robert 
of  St.  David's,  John  of  Chester  and  Paul  of  Bristol, 
and  if  they  were  married  to  deprive  them  of  their 
sees.  They  were  deprived,  as  were  three  more  re- 
forming bishops — Hooper,  Healey,  and  Taylor. 
With  these  changes  sixteen  new  bishops  were  put  into 
those  places  made  vacant  or  into  sees  prepared  for 
the  new  order.  It  was  estimated  by  Bishop  Parker 
in  the  next  reign  that  of  sixteen  thousand  clergy  in 
various  places,  twelve  thousand  were  deprived, 
though  lower  estimates,  one  as  small  as  three  thou- 
sand, had  been  made  by  others. 

Into  these  vacancies  monks  and  friars  turned  out 
of  their  places  in  previous  reigns  were  put,  as  well 
as  utterly  incompetent  and  unprepared  men,  glut- 
tonous, idle,  luxurious,  whose  work  among  the  people 
was  most  distressing,  quarreling  with  them  fre- 
quently about  the  fees  for  masses,  diriges,  baptisms, 
and  other  offices,  "pattering  and  wawling"  their 
Latin  service,  little  of  which  they  or  their  people 
understood.  A  visitation  was  now  projected  with 
this  set  of  questions:  Whether  the  clergy  so  lived, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  203 

taught,  did,  that  in  the  judgment  of  indifferent  men 
they  seemed  to  seek  the  honor  of  God,  the  church  and 
the  queen,  whether  they  were  married,  kept  hospital- 
ity, secured  a  curate  when  absent  from  their  parish, 
devoutly  celebrated  the  service  and  the  processions, 
or  were  suspected  of  heresy,  haunted  ale  houses,  tav- 
erns, bowling  alleys,  conventicles,  officiated  in  Eng- 
lish, visited  the  sick,  went  in  habit  and  tonsure,  car- 
ried swords  or  daggers,  expounded  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  Ten  Commandments,  taught  the  people  to  love 
God  and  their  neighbors,  the  seven  deadly  sins,  the 
seven  heavenly  virtues,  the  seven  works  of  mercy,  and 
the  seven  sacraments.  A  formidable  list  of  clerical 
duties,  but  how  about  their  people? 

The  imprisoned  bishops,  Cranmer,  Latimer  and 
Ridley,  were  given  an  opportunity  of  debating  the 
burning  question  of  the  time,  that  of  the  real  pres- 
ence. On  the  presentation  of  the  written  statements 
to  them  in  prison  they  all  declared  them  untrue. 
These  prisoners  had  but  a  day  or  two  of  notice  to 
enter  the  debate,  were  not  allowed  access  to  their 
books  or  papers,  were  not  permitted  to  confer  with 
each  other,  as  steps  toward  a  fair  field.  After  en- 
during an  unfair  discussion,  brow-beaten  and  abused, 
they  were  all  declared  heretics  and  were  again  re- 
manded to  prison. 

The  Protestants,  crowded  to  suffocation  in  all  the 
prisons,  united  in  a  statement  of  beliefs,  desiring  to 
put  them  before  the  queen,  the  Court  and  Parlia- 
ment. They  said  they  believed  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New  Testament  books,  the  Catholic  church, 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  certain  of  the  earliest 


204  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

church  Councils.  They  denned  justification  to  be 
wholly  of  the  mercy  of  God  through  Christ,  which 
could  be  known  by  faith,  that  being  a  persuasion 
wrought  in  the  mind  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  sub- 
mission to  the  will  of  God.  They  denounced  many 
of  the  papal  doctrines  and  desired  the  public  services 
in  English.  They  favored  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy. 

The  brutality  at  this  time  shown  for  religious 
opinions  was  most  astounding.  After  a  thousand 
years  of  Christian  profession  the  highly  inflamed 
condition  of  mind  seemed  to  restore  the  deadly  spirit 
of  the  old  heathenism.  Protestant  was  hardly  less 
brutal  than  papist.  It  will  be  seen  in  the  succeeding 
reign  that  leading  Puritans  also  failed  in  toleration 
though  themselves  in  this  reign  were  made  terrible 
sufferers  by  this  spirit.  It  is  a  joy  that  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  Sixth  it  can  be  said  that  not  a  Catholic 
was  put  to  death  for  his  religious  opinions.  But  in 
this  reign,  from  archbishop  to  mere  boys,  just  for 
an  opinion  on  the  real  presence  they  were  burned  at 
the  stake  by  the  score.  To  deny  that  Christ's  body 
was  brought  to  the  sacrament  by  the  ritual  said  by 
the  priest  over  the  bread  and  wine,  was  to  pronounce 
one's  own  death  sentence.  Gardiner  thought  a  few 
cases  of  extreme  punishment  would  deter  others  from 
heresy,  but  each  burning  seemed  in  its  recoil  on  the 
feelings  of  the  people  to  make  a  hundred  heretics.  It 
appears  that  Cardinal  Pole  soon  saw  the  futility  of 
these  severities,  turning  the  punishment  of  the 
heretics  mostly  into  the  hands  of  Bonner  and  Gardi- 
ner and  even  Gardiner  appeared  to  be  weary  of  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  205 

bloody  brutality,  leaving  Bonner  to  do  the  work  and 
bear  the  odium. 

The  sickening  scenes  cannot  all  be  told.  The  lin- 
gering dungeon  for  slow  starvation  and  disease  to 
do  their  fateful  work,  the  excruciating  rack,  the 
threatened  terrors  of  an  eternal  hell,  were  used  to 
frighten  men,  women  and  children  to  accept  the  mild 
teachings  of  the  gentle  Nazarene. 

But  it  was  all  in  vain. 

The  piled-up,  remorseless  killing  was  making  the 
nation  enraged.  Bonner  and  but  few  others  held  on 
in  the  persecution. 

Cardinal  Pole  being  deputed  as  legate  to  arrange 
for  the  return  to  Rome,  the  formality  of  reconcilia- 
tion was  gone  through.  On  St.  Andrew's  day,  the  two 
houses  of  Parliament,  after  an  address  to  them  by 
the  Cardinal,  waited  upon  the  Court,  when  the  Lord 
Chancellor  inquired  of  them  if  they  were  ready  to 
ask  the  Cardinal  for  their  pardon,  to  acknowledge 
the  papal  supremacy  and  return  to  the  Catholic 
church.  A  few  responded,  yea,  and  the  silence  of  the 
remainder  being  taken  for  consent,  a  petition  to  this 
effect  was  presented  to  the  king  and  queen.  In 
honor  of  this  return  processions  were  made  in  Rome 
and  in  London,  but  in  the  latter  no  cries  of  "God 
Save,"  no  caps  were  thrown  into  the  air  to  show 
public  joy,  which  so  enraged  Gardiner  that  he  caused 
many  arrests.  Papal  directions  were  given  to  Pole 
on  his  starting  for  England  to  forgive  repentant 
heretic  priests  who  should  relinquish  their  wives,  to 
lessen  the  strict  observance  of  Lent,  permitting  eggs, 
milk  and  meat  if  the  physician  should  so  order.  The 


206  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

pope  demanded  Peter  Pence  again  and  denounced  the 
alienation  of  church  lands. 

As  in  previous  times  efforts  were  made  to  keep  out 
books  but  in  vain.  As  early  as  1558,  a  proclamation 
came  out  against  having  heretical  books,  the  penalty 
for  this  treason  being  that  such  should  be  counted 
rebels  and  should  be  executed  under  martial  law. 
The  exiles  on  the  continent  looked  to  it  that  the  land 
should  be  well  supplied  with  books  and  pamphlets 
upon  current  issues.  The  press  steadily  grew  to  be 
a  sublime  power.  Not  only  was  it  used  in  the  great 
issues  between  Protestant  and  Catholic,  but  by  it  the 
reformers  among  themselves  discussed  free  will, 
Arianism,  Pelagianism.  Reading  the  Bible  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  denied  in  England  during  this 
reign,  but  the  refugees,  thinking  a  new  version  was 
needed,  began  the  famous  Geneva  Bible  which  was 
issued  the  year  after  Mary's  death.  The  violent 
Knox  had  predicted  a  speedy  deliverance,  and  indeed 
a  general  impression  prevailed,  both  among  the 
refugees  and  in  England,  that  Mary's  reign  would  be 
short.  Coverdale  also  wrote  to  encourage  the  perse- 
cuted ones.  Knox's  "Blast  Against  the  Monstrous 
Regiment  (Government)  of  Women"  was  written 
against  Mary,  but  not  coming  out  in  England  until 
Elizabeth's  time  caused  that  sensitive  sovereign  to 
hate  the  writer,  notwithstanding  his  apology  that 
Providence  might  have  appointed  her  to  reform  re- 
ligion. 

In  those  terrible  years  a  true  sense  of  charity 
burned  in  the  hearts  of  some  who  aided  the  prisoners 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  207 

and  abandoned  families  with  money,  food,  care  and 
sympathy.  Bernher,  a  Switzer,  heedless  of  danger 
and  toil,  went  among  the  prisons  and  prisoners,  a  very 
angel  of  mercy.  One  George  Eagle,  a  tailor,  was 
nicknamed  "Trudgeover,"  because  in  his  humble  way 
he  went  trudging  over  the  country  teaching  and  con- 
firming the  reformers  in  their  course,  through  Essex, 
Norfolk,  Suffolk  and  Kent.  It  was  treason  to  collect 
more  than  six  persons  in  a  meeting  for  any  purpose, 
but  often  in  secret  he  had  many  to  listen  to  him. 
The  Council  finally  setting  a  price  of  twenty  pounds 
on  him,  secured  his  person,  hung  and  quartered  him 
for  treason.  Nor  was  he  alone  in  this  work  since 
preachers  in  other  parts  went  among  the  people, 
teaching,  comforting,  and  encouraging.  Even  in 
London  where  the  brutal  Bonner  was  harrying  to 
the  death  his  number  of  two  hundred,  Bcntham,  a 
reformer,  and  others  acting  as  pastors,  had  meetings 
constantly,  moving  their  gatherings  from  place  to 
place,  sometimes  as  many  as  two  hundred  collecting 
in  the  teeth  of  death  to  hear  the  preacher  and  to  read 
the  Bible. 

So  intense  did  the  persecuting  spirit  become  that 
great  fear  arose  lest  the  Inquisition  should  be  set  up 
in  England  as  it  was  in  Spain  and  in  other  countries. 
Indeed,  a  visitation  was  set  up  which  went  far  toward 
that  terrible  thing.  A  large  commission  was  formed 
any  three  of  whom  could  by  witnesses,  presentment 
or  other  politic  way  they  could  devise,  search  out  all 
heresies,  disseminators  of  heretical  books,  punish  all 
who  did  not  attend  mass  or  go  to  church,  or  enter 


208  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

processions,  or  take  holy  bread  and  water.  Informa- 
tion in  these  cases  was  to  be  rendered  secretly  but 
not  to  be  entered  on  the  records. 

The  number  that  perished  under  the  awful  perse- 
cutions of  those  five  years  will  doubtless  never  be 
known.  One  historian  counts  up  two  hundred  sev- 
enty-seven. Another  places  the  number  at  two  hun- 
dred eighty-four,  of  these  fifty-five  being  women 
and  four  children.  A  writer  in  Elizabeth's  reign  put 
the  number  at  four  hundred.  In  a  life  of  Ridley 
written  in  that  reign,  presumably  by  Grindal,  it  is  said 
in  the  preface  that  eight  hundred  perished  in  the  first 
two  years  of  Mary's  reign.  Besides  those  counted 
as  perishing  at  the  stake,  hundreds  died  in  prisons, 
from  starvation,  loathsome  diseases,  and  from  that 
despair  apt  to  creep  upon  one  in  such  durance.  It 
was  claimed  also  that  many  were  murdered  in  prison 
like  Richard  Hunne  in  the  time  of  Henry  Eighth. 

During  the  year  1558  the  queen's  health  presaged 
the  approach  of  death.  Some  time  before,  her  hus- 
band had  deserted  her  and  England.  All  her  efforts  to 
restore  papal  control  in  her  country  appeared  to  be 
futile.  The  people  at  large  were  less  inclined  to  ac- 
cept that  rule  than  when  she  came  to  the  throne. 
The  people  also  saw  that  she  was  the  foremost  agent 
in  the  terrible  persecutions  and  bloodshed.  She  saw 
that  the  mass  of  her  subjects  were  alienated  from  her 
and  were  turning  their  longing  eyes  to  the  woman  who 
was  to  succeed  her.  Finally,  with  these  accumulated 
distresses,  Mary,  long  suffering  from  internal  ail- 
ment, died  of  the  dropsy  November  17,  1558.  The 
queen  we  can  think  from  this  distance  away  did  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


209 


best  she  knew.  The  Spanish  blood  and  the  Tudor 
spirit  can  be  accused  of  producing  much  of  her 
bigotry  and  narrowness.  She  was  devoutly  pious, 
composing  hearty  prayers,  one  for  the  time  of  sick- 
ness, another  for  the  approach  of  death.  Of  spot- 
less character,  well  educated,  she  gave  liberally  to 
church  enterprises  and  founded  several  valuable  insti- 
tutions, yet  lacked  patriotism  that  would  do  noble 
things  for  the  nation.  The  church  instead  of  the 
nation  absorbed  her  affections  and  labors. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  after  two  reigns  of 
comparative  failure.  That  of  Edward  Sixth  was  not 
a  success  in  its  Protestantism,  nor  were  the  four 
years  of  Mary  a  success  in  their  Catholicism.  No 
united  England  was  prepared  for  the  one  or  the  other 
religious  practice.  Elizabeth  and  the  astute  states- 
men she  gathered  about  her  saw  this  condition  of  the 
nation  so  that  her  beginnings  to  both  parties  must 
have  seemed  vague.  She  had  herself  conformed  to 
the  Catholic  ritual  as  required  by  Mary's  laws, 
though  it  was  supposed  to  be  a  policy  method  for 
safety  rather  than  as  a  matter  of  conscience  or  of 
faith.  The  Romish  ritual  was  used  at  the  corona- 
tion, Bishop  Oglethorpe  of  Carlisle  performing  it, 
the  archbishop  of  York  hesitating  to  crown  her, 
owing  to  her  supposed  sympathy  with  the  Reforma- 
tion. She  was  deeply  moved  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  populace,  bowing  and  smiling  at  their  hearty  wel- 
come. Her  recognition  of  them  was  a  new  thing  to 
the  English  from  a  sovereign,  and  it  was  prophetic 
of  the  way  she  was  to  appeal  to  the  affections  of  her 
subjects  throughout  a  long  reign. 

Her  Council  was  partly  of  reformers  and  partly 
of  papists,  though  her  trusted  counselors  from  the 
first  were  a  small  group  of  those  favorable  to  reform. 
Cecil,  who  had  held  some  court  place  in  Edward's 
time,  but  had  lived  in  the  retirement  of  his  manors 

in  Mary's  reign,  was  chosen  chief  secretary,  and  as 

210 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  211 

long  as  he  lived  till  near  the  end  of  her  reign  was  fore- 
most in  directing  her  deliberations.  At  once  perse- 
cution ceased,  those  imprisoned  for  their  religion 
being  set  at  liberty.  Portions  of  the  Bible  in  church 
services  were  allowed  to  be  read  in  English.  The 
Lord  Keeper  told  both  houses  of  Parliament  "that 
the  honor  of  God  was  the  queen's  principal  concern, 
claiming  precedence  in  the  debates,  that  religion  was 
the  surest  support  of  the  commonwealth,  that  uni- 
formity in  belief  and  practice  was  a  necessary  con- 
dition." In  this  last  claim  for  uniformity  lay  a 
germ  of  many  future  troubles.  The  Convocation  by 
the  bishops  sent  up  an  address  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
urging  three  matters,  that  there  should  be  no  change 
allowed  in  doctrines  especially  touching  the  real 
presence,  that  there  should  be  no  precedency  of  St. 
Peter's  power  permitted,  and  third,  that  ecclesiastical 
questions  should  be  settled  by  the  clergy.  Over 
these  questions  great  debates  were  carried  on  but  no 
definite  results  were  reached.  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  was  soon  brought  forward  from  its  banishment 
of  the  preceding  reign,  reviewed  and  slightly  revised 
and  ordered  into  use,  though  the  prelates  opposed  it. 
On  the  day  of  St.  John  Baptist  it  went  into  universal 
use  though  not  wholly  pleasing  to  the  Catholic  party. 
In  an  edition  of  1560,  prayers  to  be  used  in  private 
and  in  families  were  omitted  so  as  to  confine  the 
service  wholly  to  the  churches,  looking  toward  com- 
plete uniformity. 

The  royal  supremacy  was  revived,  though  it  was 
strongly  opposed  by  the  prelates  and  by  the  influence 
of  Rome.  On  the  tender  to  the  clergy  of  an  oath 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

covering  this  claim,  all  the  prelates  save  Kitchen  of 
Llandaff  refused  to  take  it,  consequently  were  de- 
prived as  were  many  other  clerics,  the  number  being 
reckoned  by  different  historians  at  about  two  hun- 
dred out  of  nine  thousand  four  hundred  in  England. 
Those  deprived  were  permitted  to  remain  unmolested 
in  the  country,  even  the  infamous  Bonner.  For  the 
first  refusal  to  take  the  oath  one  fell  under  the  pen- 
alty of  premunire,  and  of  treason  for  the  second 
refusal.  Archbishop  Parker  obtained  the  queen's 
permission  for  his  suffragans  to  use  gentleness  in  ad- 
ministering the  oath,  one  step  toward  toleration. 
Some  of  the  prelates  coming  to  remonstrate  with  the 
queen  were  told  by  her  that  if  any  of  her  subjects 
should  help  the  pope's  pretensions,  she  should  regard 
them  as  enemies  of  God  and  the  crown.  Her  rela- 
tions with  the  pope  became  strained  for  a  papal 
nuncio  was  refused  admission  into  the  kingdom. 
The  pope  had  prevailed  on  Mary,  the  Scot  Princess, 
a  niece  of  Henry  Eighth,  to  assume  with  her  hus- 
band, the  dauphin  of  France,  the  arms  of  England, 
owing  to  the  illegitimacy  claimed  for  Elizabeth.  Of 
course  this  assumption  drove  Elizabeth  to  the  re- 
formers. In  a  short  time  most  of  the  clerics  con- 
formed, and  most  of  the  laity,  at  least  in  the  early 
part  of  the  reign,  attended  church  services. 

Many  of  the  reformers  who  fled  oversea  during  the 
terror  of  Mary's  reign  now  returned  to  bring  to 
England  the  higher  culture  obtained  those  years  in 
contact  with  the  great  scholars  of  the  continent. 
Coming  with  the  advanced  ideas  of  the  Reformation, 
some  of  these  men  were  to  be  valuable  helpers  in  revis- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  213 

ing  the  Prayer  Book  and  in  other  duties,  some  to  be 
forces  of  contention  and  agitation.  The  religious 
ferment  that  was  working  to  free  the  religious  con- 
sciousness, preparing  England  for  its  vast  expansion, 
for  its  liberty  of  thought  and  worship,  and  its  wide- 
spread colonies  whose  religious  privileges  were  even 
to  surpass  those  of  the  mother  country,  began  deep- 
ening and  intensifying  early  in  Elizabeth's  reign. 
People  were  reading  and  thinking  as  never  before. 
For  discussion  more  liberty  was  given  than  in  all 
the  past,  the  early  germs  of  toleration  were  starting 
up  among  the  masses  and  were  being  protected  by 
the  broad-minded  Cecil  and  the  other  statesmen  of 
that  age.  The  first  great  step  in  that  toleration, 
taken  unconsciously,  was  when  Elizabeth  and  her 
Council  at  first  ordered  punishment  for  heresy  to 
cease. 

In  London  and  in  other  localities  the  churches 
were  cleaned  of  crosses  and  images,  these  being  pub- 
licly burned  in  Smithfield,  a  harmless  avengement  for 
the  martyrs'  lives  offered  in  that  gehenna.  With 
these  more  spectacular  objects  went  copes,  censers, 
altar  cloths,  banner  staffs  and  other  adornments  and 
also  books  of  doctrine  and  ritual. 

A  committee  of  continental  refugees  had  in  Mary's 
time  undertaken  a  new  version  of  the  Bible  at  Geneva 
under  the  supervision  of  Calvin  and  Benza.  John 
Knox  was  among  these  revisers,  he  and  most  of  them 
on  Elizabeth's  accession  leaving  the  Bible  work  and 
returning  to  England.  However,  an  English 
scholar,  Whittingham,  and  two  others  remained  at 
the  task  in  Geneva,  issuing  the  edition  known  as  the 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Geneva  Bible  in  1560.  Of  course  it  was  quickly 
scattered  over  England  though  not  welcomed  by  the 
queen  or  by  Archbishop  Parker  and  others.  It  was 
the  first  copy  of  the  Bible  to  have  its  chapters,  made 
years  before,  divided  into  verses,  a  help  since  of  in- 
estimable worth  to  students  and  teachers  of  the  book. 
The  new  version  was  done  with  scholarly  reference 
to  the  original  Greek  and  Hebrew  while  its  notes  and 
leanings  were  distinctly  touched  with  the  system  of 
theology  known  by  Calvin's  name,  teaching  predes- 
tination and  election.  It  was  printed  with  Roman 
type  and  in  both  size  and  price  put  in  easy  reach  of 
the  people.  Calvinistic  teachings  were  already  be- 
coming influential  in  England.  Some  of  these  teach- 
ings tasted  of  liberty  and  that  to  a  Tudor  was  most 
bitter.  Yet  so  gladly  was  this  Bible  caught  up 
by  the  people  and  read  that  sixty  editions  came  out 
before  the  queen's  death,  and  a  hundred  more  before 
it  was  finally  superseded  by  the  King  James'  trans- 
lation. The  Bible  largely  supplied  the  want  of 
literary  craving  and  the  search  after  truth.  The 
bishops  not  liking  the  Geneva  Bible,  Parker  and 
others  projected  another  one  to  be  done  by  the  prel- 
ates or  by  those  in  sympathy  with  them.  This  was 
the  Bishops'  Bible,  large  and  costly.  Still  in  forty 
years  it  passed  through  nineteen  editions. 

Another  book,  put  forth  in  1561,  Fox's  "Book  of 
Martyrs,  or  Acts  and  Monuments,"  had  a  profound 
influence  in  helping  forward  the  reformers  but 
greatly  exasperated  the  Catholics.  Its  story  of  the 
Marian  martyrs  doubtless  had  some  extravagant 
opinions  but  being  mostly  a  compilation  of  state 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  215 

papers  of  English  history  as  well  as  testimony  of 
eye  witnesses  and  contemporaries  it  can  be  regarded 
as  reliable  and  was  eagerly  read  by  the  masses.  It 
showed  up  the  awful  spirit  of  religious  intolerance 
in  the  bloodthirsty  practices  of  the  hierarchy  and 
royalty  dominated  by  papal  influences.  Grindal, 
while  a  Marian  exile,  greatly  aided  Fox  in  making 
the  book.  Going  through  several  editions  it  was  or- 
dered to  be  set  in  the  churches  alongside  the  Bible 
for  the  people  to  read.  Horror  sent  a  shudder 
through  the  sympathetic  people.  But  Fox,  the  au- 
thor, for  his  ultra  reforming  views,  was  neglected  in 
preferments,  and  when  with  other  clergy  of  London 
was  required  by  Archbishop  Parker  to  subscribe  to 
the  order  of  uniformity,  he  took  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment out  of  his  pocket  and  said,  "To  this  I  will 
subscribe." 

If  a  few  men  were  scholarly  like  the  returning 
exiles,  a  great  number  of  the  clergy,  owing  to  the 
death  of  capable  ones  by  the  plague,  the  deprivations 
of  many  for  nonconformity,  had  been  given  parishes 
though  illy  prepared  in  mental  training  or  in  reli- 
gious spirit  for  their  high  calling  or  spiritual  labors. 
Some  were  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  Bible,  were 
grossly  immoral,  drinking,  rioting,  gambling,  still 
following  the  worship  of  relics  and  images,  favoring 
pilgrimages,  believing  in  sorcery  and  witchcraft,  and 
using  enchantments.  So  poor  was  the  service  ren- 
dered by  the  clerics  that  laymen  were  appointed  to 
read  sermons  and  homilies  furnished  them.  The  ex- 
jriment  was  not  wholly  a  success,  for  the  people 
icreasing  in  general  knowledge  required  preachers 


216  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  education  and  of  mental  force.  The  universities, 
denuded  of  their  endowments  could  not  supply 
half  of  the  demand.  Some  of  the  most  scholarly 
preachers,  especially  those  returning  from  the  con- 
tinent, owing  to  their  Lutheran  or  Calvinistic  prin- 
ciples were  denied  the  places  they  were  fitted  to 
fill 

Within  two  or  three  years  after  Elizabeth's  acces- 
sion, she  and  her  Council  deemed  there  was  danger 
from  the  discontented  Catholics,  for  these  saw  the 
decided  trend  of  the  government  toward  reformation 
and  the  evident  drifting  of  the  people  the  same  way, 
making  the  leading  Catholics  surly,  and  arousing 
hatred  against  the  Queen.  It  was  claimed  that  plots 
for  her  assassination  were  known.  The  pope's  at- 
titude of  hostility  toward  her  with  his  encourage- 
ment of  the  Scottish  Queen's  pretentious  to  the 
throne  of  England  began  to  have  an  influence.  A 
few  of  the  Catholics  were  arrested  and  subjected  to 
trial.  If  they  would  not  use  the  Prayer  Book  and 
would  persist  in  celebrating  mass,  it  was  counted 
not  simply  heresy  but  treason,  since  it  was  contrary 
to  established  law.  A  few  fled  the  kingdom,  becom- 
ing on  the  continent  busy  malcontents,  having 
learned  the  lesson  well  of  the  Protestant  refugees 
during  Mary's  reign. 

There  began  taking  form  in  the  early  years  of 
Elizabeth  a  movement  that  has  had  profoundest  in- 
fluence upon  the  religious  life  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  At  the  very  start  the  Queen  was  urged  by 
some  of  the  Genevan  exiles  to  take  radical  position 
in  eliminating  all  traces  of  popery  from  the  church 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

service  since  they  deemed  these  imperfect,  use- 
less, and  pernicious.  Doutbless  the  great  Queen  and 
her  statesmen  were  wiser  than  these  fervent  reformers, 
as  the  nation  so  divided  in  its  beliefs  would  hardly 
have  endured  such  radicalism  and  this  the  govern- 
ment saw.  But  these  reformers  were  learned,  intense 
and  persistent.  They  became  a  fretful  thorn  in  the 
side  of  the  body  politic  and  ecclesiastic.  Hooper 
and  Grindal  objected  to  being  inducted  into  office 
habited  in  the  mystic  toggery  of  the  ordinary  prel- 
ates. The  House  of  Commons  had  early  given  ex- 
pression to  a  desire  for  more  simple  and  direct  serv- 
ice, and  to  leave  off  many  of  the  ceremonies  and  doc- 
trines which  seemed  to  them  to  smack  of  popery. 
The  lower  house  of  Convocation  asked  for  similar 
reform,  such  requests  being  specially  significant  on 
the  supposition  that  these  houses  were  in  more  sym- 
pathetic touch  with  the  common  people  than  the 
upper  ones  and  thus  gave  voice  to  the  nation  at 
large.  With  these  things  the  Queen  was  displeased, 
considering  herself  alone  the  proper  person,  as  the 
head  of  the  church,  to  deal  with  the  matters  of 
church  polity  and  doctrine  and  claiming  that  her 
prerogative  was  encroached  upon  by  such  interfer- 
ence. She  insisted  upon  uniformity.  In  her  Council 
was  difference  of  opinion  regarding  her  attitude  up- 
on this  question. 

The  reformers  were  nicknamed  "Puritans,"  owing 
to  their  claim  of  purity  in  ceremonies,  doctrine  and 
life.  Among  the  reforming  clerics  and  reformers 
was  Thomas  Cartwright,  a  Cambridge  professor, 
who  with  his  great  ability  argued  against  the  claim 


218  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  and  against  pluralities, 
nonresidence  of  the  clergy,  and  excommunication. 
He  had  been  an  exile  in  Geneva,  was  highly  educated, 
of  dauntless  spirit,  well  connected,  and  was  able  to 
direct  the  faction  into  great  efficiency.  Pilkington, 
bishop  of  Durham,  was  also  in  favor  of  pushing 
further  into  reform.  Numbers  of  dissenting  clergy- 
men for  refusal  to  conform  in  garments  and  in  cer- 
tain rites  and  doctrines  were  deprived  of  their 
benefices.  The  new  Anglican  church  was  to  re- 
pudiate Catholicism,  but  was  very  determined  that 
the  hierarchy  and  Queen  should  proceed  cautiously. 
But  here  the  wedge  was  entering  that  on  the  one 
hand  was  to  separate  the  Protestant  church  polity 
of  Great  Britain  into  the  Established  Church,  pay- 
ing much  heed  to  rites  and  ceremonies  brought  along 
with  the  Romish  practices,  and  on  the  other  hand, 
into  the  Dissenters  who  claimed  that  they  sought  a 
purer  religious  life  by  direct  approach  and  less 
ritualism  to  the  Heavenly  Father.  They  urged, 
with  reason  it  would  seem,  that  if  a  part  of  the  old 
ceremonies  were  retained  why  not  retain  all.  In- 
stead of  allowing  peaceful  evolution  the  Dissenters 
grew  heated,  refused  to  attend  church,  held  in  deri- 
sion such  priests  as  wore  the  vestments  and  followed 
the  order  of  service  sent  out  by  the  Queen.  In  Lon- 
don much  neglect  of  conforming  grew  up  among  the 
clergy,  but  being  put  sharply  under  subscription, 
most  of  them  conformed  save  a  few  strenuous  souls. 
Cambridge  University  became  especially  restless 
under  the  requirement  to  wear  the  habit  and  conform 
in  other  ways,  when  Cecil  expostulated  with  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  219 

Queen  lest  the  insistence  of  her  orders  should  cause 
the  colleges  to  be  deserted. 

With  this  active,  restless  body  of  Puritan  dissi- 
dents, the  large  number  of  the  Catholic  party,  and 
with  the  Established  Anglican  church,  the  matters 
of  religion  continued  the  triangular  situation  of  the 
preceding  reign.  The  English  love  of  rights  and 
liberty  illy  brooked  the  repression  that  Elizabeth 
insisted  upon.  When  it  is  remembered  that  in  those 
times  toleration  was  considered  a  wrong  allowance 
and  that  the  Queen  confounded  nonconformity  with 
treason  the  situation  can  best  be  understood.  The 
Catholics  who  fled  oversea  carried  on  their  propa- 
ganda as  pensioners  of  Spain  against  Elizabeth  in 
favor  of  the  Scottish  queen,  who  was  an  ardent 
papist.  The  founding  of  the  Douay  College  in 
1568,  with  others  still  later,  having  the  openly  ex- 
pressed purpose  of  teaching  missionaries  to  be  sent 
to  England  for  bringing  back  that  country  to  the 
papal  control,  might  well  alarm  the  nation. 

With  the  flush  of  liberty  obtained  these  years, 
the  Englishmen  remaining  on  the  home  soil,  Puritan 
and  Catholic  and  Orthodox  were  loyal  to  the  Queen 
and  her  government  in  spite  of  her  tyranny.  Eng- 
land was  at  school.  The  pope  giving  up  in  despair 
of  bringing  Elizabeth,  "that  vessel  of  iniquity,"  to 
accept  Roman  supremacy,  finally  excommunicated 
her.  Those  young  English  Catholics  sent  from  the 
continent  into  England  as  missionaries  had  papal 
permission  to  assume  any  character  they  found  nec- 
essary to  cover  their  proceedings,  might  pretend  to 
be  conformists,  Puritans,  or  become  married,  since 


220  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

union  with  a  heretic  was  void,  or  they  might  go 
under  different  names  or  adopt  any  pretense  what- 
ever to  guard  themselves,  to  teach  the  Catholics, 
hear  confession,  perform  mass.  It  was  said  that 
three  hundred  were  scattered  over  the  island,  rarely 
being  betrayed  by  the  people  though  hotly  sought  by 
the  Queen's  officers.  The  oaths  under  which  they 
worked  were  far  reaching,  the  dangers  imminent, 
their  constancy  amazing. 

As  before,  the  press  was  a  powerful  agent  in  the 
agitation  over  these  matters.  The  Bible  and  con- 
troversial books  and  pamphlets  were  scattered 
broadcast.  The  Puritans,  appealing  to  Parliament, 
stated  their  grievances  and  laid  out  the  plan  of 
church  government  they  wanted.  By  this  plan  the 
hierarchy  were  to  be  set  aside,  the  congregations  and 
presbyteries  to  have  a  voice  in  the  selection  and  ordi- 
nation of  ministers,  but  in  the  plan  there  was  no  room 
for  nonconformity.  Continental  authors  sent  their 
books  oversea  in  great  numbers,  among  these  being 
the  "Decado"  of  Bullinger,  to  give  practical  sermons 
on  the  leading  doctrines  of  Christianity  for  the  use 
of  the  uneducated  preachers,  also  Calvin's  Insti- 
tutes, and  similar  books.  In  vain  orders  of  Council, 
Acts  of  Parliament,  Star  Chamber  Court  rulings, 
forbade  the  importation,  printing,  or  selling  of  books 
defending  nonconformity,  but  they  came  without  no- 
tice, were  scattered  secretly  and  were  read  with  ob- 
serving spirit.  One  strong  book  was  Bishop  Jewel's 
"Apology,"  justifying  and  defending  the  English 
church  against  the  Catholics. 

It  is  of  peculiar  interest  that  this  book  written 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

in  Latin  was  translated  into  the  English  by  a 
woman,  Lady  Anne  Bacon,  wife  of  the  Lord  Keeper 
and  mother  of  Francis  Bacon.  This  translation  the 
learned  lady  sent  to  Bishop  Jewel  to  review  with  the 
note  written  in  Greek,  but  the  translation  was  so 
well  done  that  the  bishop  is  said  not  to  have  changed 
a  word.  Many  women  of  the  upper  classes  were  at 
this  time  highly  educated,  not  indeed  in  the  colleges 
that  were  not  open  to  the  sex  but  by  private  tutors, 
and  earlier  in  some  of  the  better  nunneries.  These 
women  were  the  first  fruits  and  promise  of  free  college 
education  now  granted  Anglo-Saxon  women  over  the 
world. 

The  Puritans  insisting  on  their  right  to  follow 
the  methods  of  worship  to  suit  their  convictions, 
first  began  absenting  themselves  from  church  serv- 
ices, then  neglecting  fasts,  festivals,  and  violating 
Lent,  and  then  came  to  holding  clandestine  meetings. 
Among  them  their  own  preachers  went  stealthily 
somewhat  as  the  Catholic  missionaries  went  among 
their  people.  Very  great  was  the  Queen's  dislike 
of  the  Puritans  in  their  nonconformity.  By  1556 
their  conventicles  began  to  take  organized  form. 
After  consultation  and  prayers  of  both  laity  and 
deposed  ministers,  they  decided  to  break  loose  from 
the  Established  Church  and  gather  privately  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  their  wish  and  consciences. 
Throwing  aside  the  Anglican  liturgy  they  adopted 
the  German  form.  They  were  persistently  watched, 
often  arrested,  then  again  spasmodically  granted  re- 
spite and  again  severely  handled.  They  began  form- 
ing presbyteries  or  classes,  held  synods,  but  had  this 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

deference  to  the  apostolic  succession  that  they  never 
ordained  their  own  ministers,  depending  on  the  prel- 
ates of  England  or  on  some  of  the  continental  divines 
to  whom  they  went  for  that  rite.  So  many  were 
deprived  or  else  withdrew  under  conscientious 
scruples  that  numerous  churches  were  left  without 
ministers,  causing  great  discontent,  complaint  aris- 
ing especially  in  London  over  the  neglect  of  service 
and  the  decay  of  religion.  Parker  and  others  did 
herculean  toil  to  remedy  these  things  but  it  was  im- 
possible wholly  to  supply  the  vacant  cures.  Later 
Bishop  Sandys  said  in  a  sermon  before  the  Queen 
that  in  the  north  country  there  were  people  who 
did  not  hear  a  sermon  once  in  seven  years,  he  might 
say,  once  in  seventeen  years. 

As  the  controversies  deepened  the  nonconformists 
took  more  and  more  radical  positions.  They  who 
stuck  for  toleration  of  their  convictions  and  ideals 
purposed  on  their  part  to  be  intensely  intolerant  in 
their  church  government,  demanding  uniformity  to 
the  extent  of  the  magistrate's  sword.  As  if  the 
bloody  persecutions  so  fresh  in  memory  made  them 
beside  themselves,  some  of  the  dissidents  would  at 
times  even  spit  in  the  face  of  those  in  papistical  gar- 
ments and  revile  them.  When  Bonner  died  it  was 
considered  unsafe  to  take  his  body  to  burial  through 
the  streets  in  the  daytime,  so  at  midnight  the  cortege 
of  diminutive  proportions  secretly  carried  his  de- 
tested remains  to  their  concealed  resting  place. 
The  Puritans  in  1571  introduced  a  bill  by  the  hand 
of  Strickland  for  modifying  the  liturgy  more  into 
conformity  to  the  teaching  at  Geneva.  This  ex- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

asperated  the  Queen  who  ordered  the  bold  states- 
man to  leave  the  House  of  Commons  and  come  to 
it  no  more,  but  this  arbitrary  act  being  resented  by 
the  House,  the  Queen  on  comprehending  the  spirit 
of  that  body  demanding  the  restoration  of  the  de- 
leted member,  released  the  doughty  champion  of 
rights. 

Not  only  in  parliamentary  and  court  circles  but 
also  in  the  hierarchal  did  the  Queen  call  for  enforce- 
ment of  laws  for  conformity.  The  archbishop  was 
crowded  beyond  his  judgment  by  her  to  this  end,  as 
were  many  of  the  other  prelates.  Two  men  promi- 
nent in  college  life  were  found  lacking  under  the  rules 
and  were  deprived,  Sampson,  dean  of  Christ  Church, 
and  Humphrey,  president  of  Magdalene.  Cam- 
bridge became  hot  over  wearing  vestments,  deans, 
fellows  and  others  appealing  to  Cecil  so  that  the 
court  was  greatly  stirred  in  the  matter.  Elizabeth, 
with  her  Tudor  inheritance,  seemed  incapable  of 
comprehending  the  spirit  of  the  English  people  with 
the  Bible  in  their  hands. 

But  with  all  these  points  of  severity  England  was 
a  country  attracting  liberty  seekers  from  other  lands. 
John  Alasco,  the  Polish  refugee,  who  with  his  con- 
gregation gathered  in  Edward's  day  had  been  a 
fugitive  in  Mary's,  now  returned  to  London,  cleans- 
ing out  their  former  house  of  worship  used  during 
the  late  reign  as  an  arsenal.  Grindal,  to  have  an 
Anglican  cleric  over  the  congregation,  was  made 
their  superintendent  as  he  was  of  other  returning 
foreigners,  Dutch  and  French  among  them.  But 
not  all  were  welcome.  Some  Dutch  Anabaptists, 


££4  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

as  well  as  Arians,  in  the  persistent  advocacy  of  their 
tenets,  were  given  twenty-four  hours  to  leave  the 
kingdom,  but  all  did  not  go,  some  remaining  to  be- 
come a  constant  source  of  annoyance  to  the  authori- 
ties. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

Those  Catholic  prelates  deprived  in  the  start  of 
Elizabeth's  time  for  refusing  the  oath  of  supremacy 
were  kept  in  gentle  ward,  the  trial  of  two  of  them 
amounting  to  nothing  decisive.  But  the  pope  was 
tireless  in  attempts  to  rescue  his  beloved  England 
from  the  grip  of  the  Reformation.  Some  of  the 
missionaries  or  secret  teachers  though  claimed  by 
papal  authorities  to  be  sent  only  for  religious  pur- 
poses were  tried  and  executed  as  traitors,  this  view 
of  them  being  the  only  one  taken  in  England.  The 
Queen  issued  an  order  that  Catholic  parents  should 
not  send  their  children  abroad  for  education,  since 
to  do  so  was  to  "make  them  dissidents  and  often  con- 
spirators." Of  course  the  order  was  evaded. 
There  was  continual  fretting  between  the  authorities 
and  Catholic  missionaries.  While  the  repressive 
power  of  the  government  filled  the  prisons,  the  dis- 
content increased.  To  the  Catholics  it  was  persecu- 
tion only,  to  the  government  an  attempt  to  save  it- 
self from  impending  dangers.  The  secret  agents 
of  Elizabeth  had  learned  of  the  purposes  formed  be- 
tween the  pope  and  Spain  for  that  grand  attempt 
later  upon  the  Queen's  dominions  by  the  Invincible 
Armada.  The  names  even  of  those  doomed  to  death 
on  the  conquest  were  given  out. 

One  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  deepest,  richest 
religious  life  of  all  this  period  was  that  developed 
by  the  Puritans.  Out  of  their  spirit  and  labors  were 

225 


226  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

to  come  vastest  results  to  the  masses  of  the  nation. 
They  were  in  best  touch  with  the  most  progressive 
part  of  the  people  though  despised  by  the  Establish- 
ment, hated  by  the  Queen,  and  in  fiery  antagonism 
with  the  Catholics.  The  court  and  hierarchy  being 
greatly  alarmed,  frantic  efforts  were  made  to  stop 
their  influence.  In  London  their  increase  was  rapid 
and  their  power  great.  Their  ablest  writer,  Cart- 
wright,  who  had  fled  oversea,  on  returning  was 
clapped  into  prison.  His  two  "Admonitions  to  Par- 
liament" arguing  against  the  remnants  of  popery  in 
the  Anglican  church,  and  making  plea  for  churches 
to  a  new  order  of  church  government,  and  for 
liberty,  were  reprinted  in  many  editions,  creating  a 
profound  impression.  Not  alone  among  the  lowly 
did  their  tenets  find  favor,  for  many  of  the  nobility 
sided  with  them  in  the  court  and  out  of  it.  The 
French  refugees  also  took  sides  with  them.  The 
Bishop  of  Oxford  grew  weary  of  his  duties  and  de- 
sired to  resign,  assigning  as  one  reason  that  sectaries 
were  increasing  rapidly,  as  also  their  refusal  to  con- 
form to  surplice,  their  not  conducting  services  ac- 
cording to  Common  Prayer  and  speaking  against 
the  hierarchy. 

The  Puritans  justly  hated  the  Star  Chamber  and 
High  Court  Commission  in  the  arbitrary  courses  of 
those  courts.  When  the  Committee  of  the  Commons 
waited  on  the  archbishop  with  a  report  from  the 
Commission  of  Thirty-two,  ordered  for  the  ref- 
ormation of  ecclesiastical  laws,  Peter  Wentworth, 
hot  Puritan  that  he  was,  replied  to  that  prelate,  who 
required  the  references  to  be  made  to  him,  "No,  by 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

the  faith  I  bear  to  God,  we  will  pass  nothing  before 
we  know  what  it  is.  For  that  were  but  to  make  you 
popes.  Make  you  popes  who  list,  for  we  will  make 
you  none." 

The  Established  Church  seems  to  have  been  ham- 
pered by  the  great  Queen  as  the  Puritans  and 
Catholics  were  persecuted  by  her.  She  was  urgent, 
sometimes  imperative,  to  the  prelates  to  insist  on 
uniformity.  She  learned  little  if  at  all  that  noncon- 
formity was  not  treason.  That  it  was  not  heresy 
she  never  dreamed.  Grindal,  succeeding  Parker  at 
Canterbury  was  much  more  lenient  than  his  pred- 
ecessor. Indeed  in  one  case,  that  called  "prophesy- 
ing," Grindal  dared  the  Queen's  commands.  The 
Queen  directed  each  bishop  to  put  a  stop  to  prophe- 
sying in  his  own  diocese.  These  prophesyings  were 
really  meetings  at  which  clergy  and  laity  gathered 
where  discussion  of  various  things  was  taken  up  so 
that  much  latitude  trending  toward  freedom  of 
speech  was  granted.  Under  her  peremptory  orders 
it  was  mostly  stopped,  though  under  protest  from 
clergy  and  people. 

It  was  the  more  unfortunate  that  anything  should 
have  hindered  a  method  for  improving  the  ministry. 
For  now  in  1582  petitions  of  the  most  startling  state- 
ments came  up  from  the  people.  From  Northamp- 
ton they  said  that  not  one  minister  was  there,  from 
Cornwall  that  of  the  one  hundred  forty  incumbents 
not  one  could  preach,  many  being  pluralists,  others 
nonresidents,  and  that  the  ninety  thousand  people 
of  the  diocese  were  perishing  for  the  bread  of  life. 
Sixty  churches,  the  petition  ran  on,  were  mostly 


228  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

supplied  with  men  who  were  guilty  of  the  grossest 
sins,  they  were  felons,  drunkards,  Sunday  gamesters, 
and  of  unspeakable  foulness.  After  twenty-eight 
years  of  the  Established  Church  a  report  to  Parlia- 
ment showed  that  there  were  but  two  thousand  pas- 
tors for  ten  thousand  parishes. 

Another  sect  beside  the  Puritans  took  form  dur- 
ing those  times  whose  lineal  descendants  hold  a 
prominent  place  now  in  the  religious  life  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  Brownists,  represented  by 
the  Independents  or  Congregationalists.  Their 
founder,  Robert  Browne,  first  imbibing  Cartwright's 
principles,  refined  upon  them,  pushing  still  further 
toward  extremities.  As  early  as  1569  he  began  put- 
ting forth  his  peculiar  views  and  some  later  his  fol- 
lowers and  those  of  Barrow,  renouncing  all  churches 
but  their  own,  considered  each  congregation  self- 
governing  and  ordained  their  own  ministers.  Bar- 
row was  hung  in  London  for  his  heretical  teachings. 
Many  fell  in  with  the  new  sect  both  of  the  lowly 
and  of  the  quality.  Two  of  these  people,  Elias 
Thacker  and  John  Coppinge,  having  been  accused 
of  denying  the  Queen's  supremacy,  were  executed  as 
traitors.  The  Lord  Treasurer  said  in  1592  that 
these  Brownists  had  increased  to  twenty  thousand 
and  a  bill  having  been  brought  forward  to  banish 
or  kill  them,  a  milder  bill,  the  nation  having  grown 
sick  of  such  severity  and  of  so  many  killings,  was 
substituted.  Many  of  these  people  were  imprisoned 
for  holding  conventicles,  dying  in  prison  from  hun- 
ger, filth  and  contagion. 

Before  the  Independents  had  entered  upon  their 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  229 

self-assertion  of  religious  rights  by  organized  form 
the  Puritans  had  begun  a  similar  course  by  organiz- 
ing presbyteries,  bodies  almost  as  democratic  as 
the  congregational  organizations  of  the  Brownists. 
The  first  of  these  was  formed  in  1572  at  Wands- 
worth,  a  suburb  of  London.  Field,  Wilcox  and 
other  ministers,  eleven  elders  and  other  laymen  met 
and  organized.  All  over  the  kingdom  this  form  of 
church  government  gradually  spread,  really  being 
done  for  self-preservation.  From  an  early  time  they 
had  strong  friends  in  the  court.  In  response  to  a 
remonstrance  there  came  out  a  court  order  for  less 
virulence  in  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  against  the 
heretics  of  that  period.  The  fountains  of  toleration 
at  length  began  to  break  forth.  If  the  Queen  feared 
for  the  state  the  prelates  feared  for  the  Establish- 
ment. When  in  1583  the  tolerant  Grindal's  death 
made  way  for  Whitgift  as  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, the  Queen  found  one  whose  determination  for 
uniformity  was  as  strenuous  as  her  own.  For  in- 
ability to  meet  Whitgift's  conditions  no  less  than 
two  hundred  thirty-three  ministers  in  six  different 
counties  were  suspended  from  their  parishes.  Many 
of  these  men  being  learned  and  worthy,  were  taken 
up  by  the  gentry  as  chaplains  and  teachers  for  their 
families  so  that  their  influence  for  good  was  not 
wholly  lost. 

In  the  meantime  the  Catholics  were  untiring  in 
their  efforts  not  to  lose  all  their  people  and  interests 
in  England.  Their  activity  was  a  constant  menace. 
The  rumors  of  a  concerted  league  against  Protestant- 
ism were  growing  into  a  reality  at  least  in  Spain, 


230  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

where  a  mighty  expedition  for  the  conquest  of  Eng- 
land was  preparing.  Persistent  plans  were  known 
to  be  ever  present  for  the  release  of  Mary  Stuart 
to  seat  her  on  the  throne  of  Elizabeth.  Yet  while 
such  portentous  clouds  impended,  another  section  of 
the  Catholics,  laying  claim  to  their  rights  because 
of  their  loyalty,  prepared  a  petition  to  court,  saying 
that  the  Catholics  considered  Elizabeth  Queen  both 
by  law  and  right,  that  they  deemed  it  sinful  for 
any  one  to  lift  up  hand  against  the  Lord's  anointed, 
that  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  pope  to  give  any 
one  license  to  do  a  sinful  thing,  and  added  other 
loyal  expressions.  But  the  bearer  of  the  olive 
branch  was  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison.  In 
some  instances  those  arrested  were  subjected  to  tor- 
ture for  eliciting  knowledge  of  their  plans  and  ac- 
complices. The  methods  of  torture  when  this  was 
resorted  to  were  horrible,  and  their  grim  instruments 
still  preserved  for  the  curious  sightseer  are  blood 
curdling.  Not  finding  the  courts,  either  civil  or 
ecclesiastical,  active  enough  in  matters  of  religious 
direction  the  Queen  had  the  two  special  courts,  that 
of  the  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Commission,  in 
active  operation. 

The  Renascence,  at  first  touching  only  a  few  of 
the  educated,  was  reaching  more  people  by  the  print- 
ing press,  controversy,  and  general  uplift.  In- 
creasing wealth  fostered  by  the  continued  peace  of 
the  decades,  when  farming  and  stock  raising  and 
manufactures  and  commerce  were  all  enlarging  the 
power  of  the  nation,  increased  also  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom and  self-assertion.  The  larger  use  of  books 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  231 

was  also  a  power  for  rights.  With  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  the  reading  masses  would  have  their 
rights  or  remonstrance  would  grow  to  revolution. 
Had  the  Tudor  dynasty  continued  it  probably  would 
have  met  the  fate  of  the  Stuarts.  But  after  all  the 
masses  loved  their  Queen.  She  was  in  her  prog- 
resses about  the  country,  of  easy  access,  affable,  and 
she  captivated  the  common  people.  When  Dobbs, 
for  writing  against  the  French  marriage  of  the 
Queen,  was  doomed  to  have  his  hand  cut  off  that 
penned  the  offensive  document,  swung  his  cap  in  the 
air  with  the  remaining  hand,  crying  "God  save  Queen 
Elizabeth,"  he  was  no  more  loyal  than  the  masses 
who  responded  to  her  call  at  the  approach  of  the 
Spanish  Armada.  The  experience  which  discovery 
and  adventure  was  giving  her  seamen,  furnished  her 
captains  of  unrivaled  ability  and  bravery  when  the 
struggle  of  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  was 
finally  brought  to  the  arbitrament  of  battle. 

And  the  matter  took  the  form  mostly  of  a  religious 
war.  The  struggle  in  the  Lowlands  was  definitely 
to  destroy  Protestantism,  this  threat  including  Eng- 
land. No  wonder  then  that  the  growing  spirit  of 
Protestantism  in  England  sent  her  swift  warships 
scouring  the  seas  in  search  of  the  hated  Catholics 
and  their  wealth,  and  that  thousands  of  Englishmen 
were  found  fighting  among  the  Dutch  against  Alva 
and  his  Spaniards.  The  acrimonious  squabbling  of 
the  sects  was  mostly  forgotten.  The  pen  of  the 
Puritan  was  laid  aside  for  the  bill  and  sword.  Al- 
most all  the  Catholics  joined  Anglican  and  Puritan  in 
a  mighty  swell  of  patriotic  devotion.  A  Catholic 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

nobleman,  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  ably  com- 
manded the  assembled  fleet,  nor  did  Anglican  or 
Puritan  captain  hesitate  to  fight  under  him.  What 
was  touching  those  leaders  was  touching  the  whole 
nation.  Peasant  and  gentry,  yeoman  and  mechanic, 
merchant  and  miner,  felt  the  uplift.  That  uplift 
was  apparent  in  mental  realms,  in  political,  social 
and  religious  activities. 

But  it  was  an  anomaly,  not  unknown  however  in 
history,  that  as  western  Europe  was  thus  grasping 
at  means  to  raise  its  own  life  to  higher  freedom,  it 
should  enter  upon  a  system  of  slavery  of  the  most 
human  atrocity.  In  the  Spanish  possessions  of  the 
New  World  the  greed  of  gold  had  led  them  to  force 
the  fragile  natives  to  work  in  the  mines  at  deadly 
toil  until  the  once  populous  islands  and  provinces 
had  been  left  without  inhabitants.  Under  the  un- 
accustomed labor  and  the  biting  whip  of  the  drivers, 
millions  had  perished.  To  remedy  this  decay  of  na- 
tive Americans,  Africa  began  to  be  entered  for  more 
hardy  slaves,  the  trader  buying  captives  of  the  local 
chiefs,  or  himself  making  a  foray  upon  the  unoffend- 
ing village  of  hapless  blacks.  For  more  than  two 
centuries  this  infamous  traffic  tore  away  from  their 
native  home  millions  of  Africans,  who  in  the  inex- 
pressible horrors  of  the  middle  passage  suffered  be- 
yond conception,  the  survivors  of  this  horror  to  be 
subjected  to  the  remorseless  conditions  of  planta- 
tion toil,  or  of  labor  in  the  half  remunerative  mines 
in  a  service  the  most  brutalizing  ever  known.  The 
curse  of  this  system  of  African  slavery  was  to  rest 
another  century  upon  the  fairest  branch  of  the  An- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


233 


glo-Saxon  race  and  threaten  the  existence  of  that 
nation  through  a  bloodly  fratricidal  war.  Inner 
glimpses  of  the  people  at  this  time  show  also  an 
exaggerated  hypocrisy  and  religious  bigotry  as  at- 
tendants upon  the  arbitrary  spirit  of  the  Queen. 
There  were  cold  charity  and  astonishing  dissolute- 
ness, since  freedom  was  often  mistaken  for  license, 
fears  of  great  dangers  sometimes  turned  out  to  be 
bogies,  and  the  nation  seemed  treading  upon  volcanic 
forces  that  were  increasing  beneath  it.  If  con- 
formity was  conceded,  then  Sabbath  breaking,  gam- 
bling, drunkenness  and  other  fashionable  vices  were 
condoned.  The  court  and  prelates  were  not  un- 
aware of  these  things,  reproofs  and  visitations  now 
and  then  acting  their  checks.  Books  were  written 
urging  a  better  Sabbath  observance,  and  toward  the 
close  of  the  reign  the  Puritan  insistence  upon  it  be- 
gan to  tell  in  a  better  observance. 

As  could  be  supposed  the  printing  press  figured 
very  largely  in  this  transition  period.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  Elizabeth  that  she  attempted  to  muzzle 
the  press.  As  early  as  1562  in  the  Queen's  Injunc- 
tions she  ordered  that  no  books  or  pamphlets  be 
printed  unless  six  of  the  Court,  or  the  High  Court 
Commission,  or  one  of  the  archbishops,  or  the  bishop 
of  London,  or  some  other  authority  passed  upon 
them.  By  1585  three  presses  only  were  allowed  in 
the  kingdom,  one  in  London,  one  at  Oxford  and  an- 
other at  Cambridge.  These  were  so  closely  under 
the  eyes  of  the  authorities  that  they  could  not  be 
used  by  the  restless  Puritans,  so  that  they  had  a 
movable  one  of  their  own  which  was  first  set  up  in 


234  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  suburbs  of  London,  fled  thence  from  one  place 
to  another,  finally  being  seized  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  kingdom  and  destroyed.  A  book  or  a  ballad 
or  a  letter  that  should  stir  up  sedition  would  as  in 
the  case  of  felony  cause  a  traitor's  death  and  loss 
of  goods. 

During  these  stirring  times  a  series  of  documents 
came  out  that  from  their  nature  and  ability  and  ob- 
scure origin  have  always  occasioned  much  interest, 
the  Martin  Marprelate  Tracts.  These  papers, 
ribald  satires,  were  attacks  upon  the  hierarchy  as 
their  name  points  out.  Of  course  they  were  written 
and  printed  by  those  in  sympathy  with  ultra  reform, 
the  press  issuing  them  being  the  Puritan  one  finally 
captured  at  the  north.  Several  people  taken  with 
the  press  were  subjected  to  trial  and  to  death. 

Finally  the  heavy  blow  so  long  preparing  against 
England  as  the  strongest  Protestant  power  was  de- 
livered. The  year  was  1588.  Philip,  the  widower 
of  one  English  queen  and  the  rejected  suitor  of  an- 
other, stated  as  one  reason  of  his  attack  that  many 
Catholics  in  England  favored  himself  for  king  and 
were  also  favorable  to  the  Catholic  faith  and  it  was 
the  part  of  the  most  Catholic  king  to  defend  that 
form  of  religion.  Indeed  the  Armada  was  a  kind  of 
later  crusade,  a  lineal  successor  of  those  against  the 
Waldenses  and  the  Bohemians.  Those  in  the 
Armada  and  fostering  it  "considered  this  suffi- 
cient to  commend  the  cause,  crusade,  and  army 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  and  the  prayers  of 
the  Catholics,  to  God  and  the  saints."  In  the  great 
fleet,  friars  and  other  religious  orders  went  along  to 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


235 


the  number  of  one  hundred  eighty,  having  specially 
prepared  litanies  and  vast  piles  of  books  to  distribute, 
while  the  vessels  were  named  for  the  saints  and 
tutelary  guardians.  To  aid  the  expedition  with  his 
spiritual  arms  the  pope  issued  a  more  severe  bull 
against  Elizabeth,  making  her  accursed,  naming  her 
a  usurper,  depriving  her  of  the  crown,  and  absolving 
her  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance.  When 
the  matchless  daring  of  the  English  had  battered  and 
beaten  and  burned  the  gigantic  ships  of  the  Span- 
iards, and  the  tempest  of  weeks  destroyed  the  fleeing 
fragments  of  the  mighty  Armada,  it  is  no  wonder 
the  English  thought  their  many  special  prayers, 
deeds  of  charity  and  other  marks  of  piety  were 
divinely  answered.  The  national  thanksgiving  most 
heartily  undertaken  afforded  evidences  of  special 
providences  of  Heaven.  The  army  assembled  at  Til- 
bury found  its  patriotic  devotion  best  expressed  by 
the  martial  psalms  of  David,  to  which  they  loudly 
gave  voice  as  the  militant  queen  passed  on  horseback 
among  them.  A  medal  struck  off  to  commemorate 
the  Armada  had  this  legend  in  Latin :  "Jehovah  blew 
and  they  were  scattered." 

Protestant  England  no  longer  stood  in  dread  of 
the  Catholic  powers  of  Spain.  Protestantism  now 
had  a  successful  champion.  The  apparition  of  be- 
numbing fear  raised  by  the  Massacre  of  St.  Barthol- 
omew, by  the  assassination  of  the  Prince  of  Orange 
and  the  hideous  killings  in  the  Lowlands,  was  now 
partly  laid  by  this  supreme  victory.  The  destruction 
of  the  Armada  was  a  boon  to  Catholicism  as  truly  as 
to  Protestantism,  for  its  weapons  of  warfare  hence- 


236  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

forth  were  no  more  to  be  those  of  war  but  of  less 
bloody  means.  With  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  the 
severities  by  the  Queen  and  court  against  the  Jesuits 
increased.  About  two  hundred  suffered  death  in  this 
way  ostensibly  for  treason  and  the  annals  of  their 
sufferings  would  make  a  book  reaching  toward  a 
match  with  Fox's  "Book  of  Martyrs."  Into  their  non- 
conformity conscience  had  entered  as  well  as  among 
the  Puritans  and  Separatists,  for  before  this  they 
had  said  in  a  petition  involving  three  points,  that 
they  shunned  the  proscribed  places  of  worship 
through  fear  of  falling  into  damnable  sin,  begging 
for  pitiful  consideration  of  their  calamities,  and 
third,  that  no  law  be  made  banishing  Catholic  priests. 
It  was  a  certain  mitigation  of  their  position  that 
some  of  the  refugees  refused  to  join  in  the  attack 
upon  their  native  country  under  Philip. 

In  the  last  decade  of  Elizabeth  the  Established 
Church  appeared  mostly  to  spend  its  energies  in 
other  activities  than  in  developing  the  religious  life. 
The  Queen's  spirit  grew  harsh  and  peevish,  her  im- 
perious orders  going  out  to  prelates  and  justices 
even  more  savagely  than  before,  so  that  heretics, 
Puritan  and  Catholic,  were  continually  hunted. 

At  this  time  when  the  church  life  was  so  depressed, 
the  book  which  is  deemed  the  most  able  defense  of 
Anglicanism,  Hooker's  "Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  came 
out.  Hooker  was  a  man  of  great  mental  attain- 
ments, of  scholarly  tastes,  wisely  preferring  a  quiet 
parish  where  he  could  write  his  book  to  the  stirring 
duties  of  cleric  preferment  tendered  him.  His  an- 
swers to  the  sectaries  harassing  the  Establishment 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  237 

took  a  broader  course  than  the  usual  ones  being 
bandied  about.  While  the  Scriptures,  he  said,  are 
a  standard  of  doctrine,  they  are  not  the  same  re- 
garding laws  for  the  government  of  the  church  and 
commonwealth,  which  are  denominations  of  the  same 
society.  If  the  Bible  does  not  specify  laws  for 
church  direction,  human  laws  have  right  and  power. 
To  the  Dissenters'  claim  that  too  much  of  the  old 
ceremonies  and  rites  remained  he  pleaded  for  as  much 
to  be  left  as  possible. 

The  debt  of  England  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
to  the  obscure  Puritans  of  those  decades  can  never 
be  counted.  It  was  seen  by  a  few  statesmen  of  the 
time  and  since  by  many  great  historians.  The  for- 
mation of  presbyteries  went  on,  the  Dissenters 
gathering  in  the  fields  and  woods  and  private  rooms, 
spending  the  whole  day  in  study  of  the  Scriptures 
and  in  prayers.  Those  clandestine  gatherings  were 
a  source  of  alarm  to  the  Queen  and  the  book  of  dis- 
cipline a  bogy.  Several  of  the  Dissenters  had  to 
seal  their  devotion  to  rights  and  their  claims  of  con- 
science with  their  blood.  Yet  the  Queen  and  most 
of  the  Council  were  marked  by  outspoken  piety. 

As  the  sixteenth  century  closed  and  the  seven- 
teenth came  the  passing  of  the  sway  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth was  apparent  to  herself  and  to  all.  To  her 
view  even  the  situation  could  not  have  been  full  of 
encouragement.  If  during  her  reign  the  nation  had 
forged  forward  to  a  foremost  place  in  the  world's 
progress,  it  had  done  so  partly  in  spite  of  Tudor 
tyranny.  If  great  captains  had  explored  widely 
and  fought  bravely,  enabling  the  nation  to  begin  its 


238  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

domination  of  a  great  share  of  the  earth's  domain, 
some  of  these  captains  by  introducing  slavery 
brought  a  stain  upon  the  national  name  which  can 
never  be  wholly  washed  away.  If  a  literary  fame 
was  earned  by  her  great  writers  so  that  the  Eliza- 
bethan Age  is  named  as  one  of  the  three  or  four 
literary  epochs  of  all  time,  there  was  also  a  most 
shocking  condition  of  morals  in  the  court  and  among 
the  people.  If  at  the  very  close  of  her  life  some 
cessation  of  religious  controversy  gave  a  rest  from 
persecution,  the  religious  life  had  made  progress  in 
spite  only  of  the  hideous  holocaust  that  in  torrents 
of  blood  sink  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  to  a  depth  al- 
most as  dark  as  that  of  the  Bloody  Mary.  No  bet- 
ter, purer,  more  loyal  Englishmen  lived  in  those  times 
than  many  Puritans,  Separatists,  and  Catholics, 
who  were  sent  to  the  death  by  royal  fear  and  pre- 
rogative. Though  great,  Elizabeth  was  merciless. 
There  was  a  streak  of  fervid  piety  in  that  same 
Queen.  Crucifix,  candles  and  other  paraphernalia  of 
the  Catholics  were  in  her  private  chapel.  She  com- 
posed prayers  to  be  read  on  special  occasions.  Her 
latest  words  were  of  a  trust  in  the  Savior  and  con- 
fidence in  his  salvation.  As  her  last  moments  came 
and  the  attendant  prelates  read  prayers,  she  signed 
approval  when  too  late  to  speak. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

"The  slow  moralization  of  life  and  society,  the  enlighten- 
ment of  conscience  and  its  growing  empire,  the  deepening 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  good  order  of  the  world  and 
the  wellbeing  of  man,  the  gradual  putting  away  of  old  wrongs 
and  foul  diseases  and  blinding  superstitions — these  are  the 
great  proofs  of  God  in  history." 

BORDEN    P.    BOWNE. 

No  great  change  can  be  seen  in  the  religious  life 
when  the  Tudor  dynasty  ended  and  that  of  Stuart 
began.  Still  dissent  put  forth  strong  words  for  rights 
in  religion  as  patriotism  did  in  matters  of  state. 
To  the  Dissenters  held  in  such  repression  by  Eliza- 
beth it  was  a  source  of  hopefulness  that  James  of 
Scotland  grew  up  in  the  different  political  air  of 
that  kingdom  under  noble  tutors  and  had  been  well 
instructed  in  Presbyterianism.  Among  the  delega- 
tions meeting  the  new  monarch  with  welcomes  were 
those  from  the  Established  Church  and  from  the 
Puritans,  the  latter  bearing  the  Millenary  petition, 
so  called  for  the  claim  that  it  bore  the  signatures 
of  a  thousand  ministers.  This  petition  asked  by  its 
delegation  certain  modifications  of  the  church  ritual, 
among  these  to  lay  aside  the  cope  and  surplice,  to 
omit  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  the  examina- 
tion for  replies  of  infants,  and  to  bow  at  the  name 
of  Jesus,  and  on  the  other  hand  asking  that  com- 
munion might  be  administered  with  the  sermon,  that 
only  efficient  ministers  might  be  used  in  the  churches 

and  their  marriage  be  permitted,  also  that  non-resi- 

239 


240  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

dences  should  cease  and  the  better  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  take  place.  Further,  that  the  custom  of 
the  bishops  to  hold  many  places  of  income  by  one 
means  and  another  should  be  annulled,  also  that  the 
custom  of  excommunication  for  trivial  reasons  and 
by  low  grade  ecclesiastics,  and  the  oath  ex  officio 
should  be  sparingly  used. 

To  these  petitioners  James  had  no  kindly  feeling 
since  he  had  been  sharply  harried  by  the  Scot  Pres- 
byteries and  came  to  his  additional  honors  and  power 
with  the  maxim  ingrained,  "No  priest,  no  king." 
Still  in  deference  to  the  Millenary  petition  he  called 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  to  which  was  named 
a  large  delegation  of  church  clergy  headed  by  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  of  the  Puritans  four 
of  their  learned  men.  James  also  came.  He  was 
pedantic  and  self-confident.  He  was  credited  with 
saying  "that  religion  was  the  soul  of  a  kingdom,  and 
unity  the  life  of  religion."  The  first  was  wisdom, 
the  second  so  construed  in  that  age  as  to  breed  in- 
tolerance. The  hierarchy  at  once  saw  that  the  king 
was  disposed  to  bear  hard  on  the  Dissenters  at  the 
same  time  that  he  favored  the  Establishment.  No 
fair  discussion  was  allowed,  nor  was  fair  investiga- 
tion made  of  differences  between  the  two  parties. 
The  King  was  peremptory,  browbeating,  giving  judg- 
ment by  his  own  word  on  issues  about  which  the 
greatest  minds  of  the  age  were  uncertain  and  divided. 

The  King,  fretted  by  the  conduct  of  the  Scot 
Presbyterians,  declared  he  feared  the  Puritans 
aimed  at  setting  up  Presbyterianism  "which 
agrees  with  monarchy  as  God  with  the  devil." 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

He  proceeded  to  an  indiscreet  assertion  before 
liberty-loving  Englishmen,  saying,  after  hear- 
ing the  points  urged  by  Dissenters,  "I  will 
make  them  conform,  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the 
kingdom,  or  else  worse."  A  few  changes  only  were 
made  in  the  ritual,  one  not  permitting  women  to 
baptize  new  born  infants,  not  confirming  children, 
and  others  of  slight  moment.  Emboldened  by  the 
king's  position  Bancroft,  the  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, pressed  uniformity  to  such  a  tension  that 
scores  of  ministers  were  silenced,  leaving  the  parishes 
vacant  while  others  were  cajoled  into  conformity. 

The  aid  in  sustaining  the  crown  which  James  ex- 
pected from  the  Anglicans  he  also  depended  on  in 
Scotland.  Before  he  left  that  country  the  tem- 
poralities of  the  dioceses  which  had  been  transferred 
to  the  crown,  were  in  1606  returned  to  the  bishops 
who  entered  the  Scot  Parliament  and  voted  there. 
To  the  attempts  of  the  Presbyterians  in  assemblies 
to  restore  their  form  of  worship  the  answer  was 
threats,  displacements,  prisons.  Another  futile  con- 
ference at  Hampton  Court  of  leaders  from  the  Scot 
Kirk  and  of  the  prelates  of  that  country  made  no 
progress  toward  adjustment,  while  the  Presbyterian 
members  of  it  were  locked  up  in  prison  by  the  king 
and  their  associates  in  Scotland  remanded  to 
banishment.  As  intensely  as  the  English  the 
Scots  dreaded  popery,  having  fear  that  the 
ceremonies  and  beliefs  of  that  faith  still  re- 
tained by  the  episcopacy  invited  a  return  of 
that  hateful  idolatrous  worship.  All  the  people 
through  the  universal  practice  of  discussing  matters 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  faith  and  conduct  were  religious  partisans,  one 
side  or  the  other.  The  nation  had  been  in  ferment 
for  two  generations  or  more  so  that  with  an  open 
Bible  and  free  discussion  they  had  learned  somewhat 
of  their  rights.  Though  a  Scot  James  failed  to 
comprehend  the  persistent  traits  of  his  countrymen. 
The  religious  life,  like  forest  trees,  needs  freedom 
for  spontaneous  growth.  But  to  carry  his  purposes 
for  setting  up  the  episcopacy  he  had  the  High  Com- 
mission Court,  that  iniquitous  inquisition,  set  up  in 
Scotland,  which  further  provoked  the  Presbyterian 
party. 

The  second  year  after  James'  succession  England 
was  startled  by  the  famous  Gunpowder  Plot. 
Owing  to  the  restrictions  under  which  the  Catholics 
lived  and  worshiped,  a  little  group  of  their  enthu- 
siasts hatched  a  purpose  to  destroy  at  one  fell  blow 
the  royal  family,  the  Parliament,  and  others  as- 
sembled at  the  opening  session  of  that  body,  hoping 
in  the  confusion  and  loss  to  set  up  a  government 
favorable  to  their  faith.  It  was  a  most  harebrained 
project.  Still  in  their  enthusiasm  they  deemed  it  a 
holy  work,  directed  from  Heaven,  and  before  their 
most  hidden  meetings  and  critical  plans  they  partook 
of  the  holy  communion.  To  accomplish  their  bale- 
ful purpose  they  filled  spaces  under  the  Parliament 
House  with  gunpowder,  selecting  Guy  Fawkes,  one 
of  their  number,  to  apply  the  match  at  the  oppor- 
tune time.  A  warning  to  a  Catholic  member  of 
Parliament  threw  out  suspicion,  the  powder  with 
Fawkes  in  the  mine  revealed  the  plot,  the  conspira- 
tors were  discovered  and  punished  with  death. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

Garnet,  a  Jesuit,  was  not  indeed  raised  by  papal 
action  into  a  saint  but  was  beatified,  a  single  step 
before  canonization.  The  bloody  wars  on  the  con- 
tinent between  Protestants  and  Catholics,  the  kill- 
ings, the  frightful  inquisitions,  and  the  Spanish 
Armada  were  held  in  memory,  so  it  is  little  wonder 
that  the  brave,  thoughtful  English  could  not  help 
fearing  that  they  stood  upon  a  throbbing  volcano. 
Of  course  severe  laws  were  added  to  those  already 
severe.  Some  were  executed  as  traitors,  many  re- 
duced to  beggary,  and  crowds  fled  oversea.  The 
pope  sent  a  brief  commanding  against  conformity 
saying  that  none  could  join  with  heretics  in  religious 
worship  without  incurring  the  displeasure  of  Al- 
mighty God  and  hazarding  their  own  salvation.  As 
James,  however,  went  seeking  a  Catholic  bride  for 
the  Prince  Charles,  first  in  Spain  and  then  in 
France,  he  winked  at  the  laws  against  the  Catholics 
which  alarmed  the  people  and  Parliament. 

The  noblest  monument  to  the  reign  of  James  First 
was  the  new  translation  of  the  Bible.  To  all  the 
previous  renderings  many  objections  were  made,  and 
at  the  Hampton  Court  Conference  Dr.  Reynolds, 
one  of  the  four  Dissenters  present,  urged  a  new  trans- 
lation, to  which  the  king  heartily  assented.  A 
group  of  fifty-four  scholars  was  appointed  to  this 
important  work,  though  but  forty-seven  were  ac- 
tively engaged  in  it.  This  body  was  divided  into 
five  or  six  committees  to  each  of  which  was  set  a 
part  of  the  Bible  to  be  translated,  it  being  specified 
that  the  bishop's  Bible  of  the  preceding  century 
should  be  the  basis  of  the  new  rendering.  In  1611 


244  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

this  noble  monument  of  English  scholarship,  devo- 
tion and  labor  was  printed.  Gradually  it  super- 
seded all  other  editions.  Not  only  was  it  of  theolog- 
ical interest  in  those  glowing  times,  to  which  Dis- 
senters and  Churchmen  went  alike  for  weapons  of 
controversy,  but  it  was  a  repository  of  choice  Eng- 
lish style,  since  its  simple,  direct  language  was  greatly 
enriched  by  Greek  and  Hebrew  idioms,  making  val- 
uable addition  to  our  racial  speech.  So  blended  are 
its  style,  teachings  and  reference  in  all  our  literature 
that  to  have  its  matter  abstracted  from  that  litera- 
ture would  be  to  impoverish  it  beyond  human  cal- 
culation. 

That  active  force  of  contention  whether  man  is 
under  stern  force  of  necessity  or  has  free  will  was 
during  these  decades,  a  burning  question  among  the 
people.  It  was  Calvin  against  Arminius.  As  the 
teachings  of  Arminius  were  finding  a  lodging  in 
England  King  James  entered  the  lists  against  the 
great  Dutch  thinker.  To  quote  some  of  the  King's 
epithets  will  give  a  glimpse  of  the  spirit  which  the 
times  evoked  in  theological  discussion.  Arminius 
was  "an  enemy  of  God,"  Vorstius,  "a  wicked 
atheist,"  and  Bertius,  having  said  that  saints  might 
fall  from  grace,  "was  worthy  of  the  fire."  How- 
ever, the  milder  theology  of  Arminius  gradually 
found  its  way  among  thinkers  and  prelates,  partly 
as  a  revolt  from  the  extreme  harshness  of  Calvin- 
ism. James  sent  a  learned  delegation  to  the  Synod 
of  Dort  in  Holland  where  the  doctrine  of  Arminius 
was  condemned  and  he  was  banished  from  his  pro- 
fessorship. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


245 


Most  of  the  religious  life  of  which  sight  can  be 
obtained  was  the  squabble  over  uniformity.  The 
learned  king  was  not  broad-minded  enough  to  com- 
prehend that  dissent  did  not  mean  felony  or  treason, 
nor  was  the  prelacy  touched  with  divine  light  enough 
to  see  that  a  nonconformist  could  be  a  good  Christian 
brother.  So  royalty  and  prelacy  united  in  harry- 
ing Dissenters.  The  ways  of  royalty  and  Court, 
of  hierarchy  and  Dissenters  in  public,  and  of  the 
universities,  are  shown  to  a  sickening  extent.  The 
Convocation  likewise  entered  the  conflict,  decreeing 
excommunication  against  such  as  should  deny  that 
the  Church  of  England  was  a  true  apostolic  church, 
or  say  that  its  ritual  services  were  corrupt,  super- 
stitious or  unlawful  worship,  or  affirm  that  the 
Thirty-one  Articles  were  in  any  part  superstitious 
or  erroneous,  or  that  the  hierarchy  was  repugnant 
to  the  worship  of  God.  The  same  sentence  was  to 
rest  upon  any  who  should  separate  from  the  Estab- 
lished Church  to  form  a  new  brotherhood. 

The  discontent  became  so  great  under  the  galling 
roke  of  the  king  and  hierarchy  that  many  Dissen- 
jrs,  both  clergy  and  laity,  fled  the  country,  many 
)ing  to  Holland,  where  was  broader  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  others  to  the  colonies.  In  Holland 
lese  refugees  set  up  churches  mostly  of  the  Pres- 
>yterian  model.  Also  some  of  the  ministers  leaving 
Ingland  went  as  chaplains  to  the  English  regiments 
>n  the  continent.  The  growing  claims  to  great 
>rerogative  put  forth  by  James  alarmed  many  of 
people  and  a  special  dissent  to  his  course  was 
lade  by  a  group  of  the  clergy  in  Lincolnshire.  He 


246  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

was  setting  aside  the  laws,  and  himself  issuing  dec- 
larations designed  to  have  the  force  of  laws.  The 
nation  looked  askance  upon  his  kingcraft.  Within 
three  years  after  his  accession  Parliament  began 
taking  steps  toward  religious  enlargement.  In  1606 
a  bill  was  offered  in  the  Commons  remonstrating 
against  the  High  Commission  Court  as  a  menace  to 
liberty.  The  King  personally  headed  off  this  bill. 
Parliament  followed  Parliament  in  remonstrances 
touching  one  phase  or  another  of  religious  life. 
Positions  were  defended  that  were  contrary  to  the 
constitution  and  the  growing  religious  conscious- 
ness. 

In  the  Commons  of  1607  a  strong  speech  against 
the  position  of  the  prelates  and  of  the  King  was 
made  which  caused  James  to  call  both  houses  before 
him,  telling  them  that  he  did  not  purpose  to  govern 
by  absolute  power,  yet  to  dispute  what  a  king  might 
do  was  sedition.  Further,  claiming  he  had  the 
power  of  life  and  death,  he  would  judge  but  would 
not  be  judged.  In  spite  of  all  repression  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  and  liberty  was  growing  in  the  na- 
tion, for  in  the  Parliament  of  1610  not  one  voice 
but  twenty  were  raised  against  the  High  Commis- 
sion Court,  the  papists,  pluralities,  and  non-resi- 
dences. It  was  also  urged  that  the  silenced  Puri- 
tan ministers  might  be  licensed  for  the  good  of  the 
people.  The  answer  of  James  to  these  remon- 
strances was  the  dissolution  of  the  Parliament. 
Though  he  now  determined  to  govern  without  a 
Parliament,  the  financial  distresses  compelled  him  to 
call  another  three  years  later,  which,  beginning  to 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

show  up  the  grievances,  was  quickly  dissolved  by  the 
irate  King.  The  Parliament  of  1620  put  in  claims 
for  justice  and  rights  and  for  free  debate  in  Parlia- 
ment, when  the  enraged  James  coming  to  the  hall 
tore  out  with  his  own  hand  the  pages  containing  the 
obnoxious  resolutions ;  but  he  did  not  tear  those 
principles  from  the  hearts  of  Englishmen. 

Claims  for  more  freedom  found  voice,  not  alone 
in  Parliament,  for  the  young  ministers  of  the  state 
church  and  the  people  at  large  were  discussing  mat- 
ters that  troubled  the  narrow-minded  king.  On  this 
account  he  wrote  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
to  stop  this  freedom  among  his  clerics  of  preaching 
"unprofitable,  unsound,  seditious  and  dangerous  doc- 
trine." He  would  have  these  young  preachers  keep 
to  simple  teachings  they  could  comprehend  and  their 
hearers  understand.  One  of  the  ministers  quoted  a 
sentiment  with  approval  of  a  continental  commenta- 
tor on  the  Bible  that  it  might  be  lawful  in  some  ex- 
tremities for  a  subject  to  resist  a  ruler.  This  act 
caused  James  to  throw  the  preacher  into  prison  and 
publicly  to  burn  the  ominous  book.  But  it  was  in 
vain.  England  itself  sympathized  with  Bohemia 
md  other  continental  people  struggling  for  rights 
id  liberty.  The  only  daughter  of  James,  the 
•incess  Elizabeth,  was  married  to  Frederick,  the 
iler  of  the  Rhine  Palatinate,  both  these  being 
leartily  in  sympathy  with  the  progressive  spirit  of 
Freedom  sought  by  so  many  European  peoples, 
'hey  were  favorably  looked  upon  by  the  progressive 
Dissenters  of  England,  and  of  them  in  the  next  cen- 
tury came  the  royal  line  of  the  Georges. 


248  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

The  spirit  of  religious  enlargement  even  before 
the  terrible  repression  of  Laud  had  so  many  obstacles 
in  its  way  that  there  came  a  temporary  decay  in  the 
religious  life  of  the  nation.  If  one  in  any  walk  in 
life  appeared  in  earnest,  denouncing  vice  or  pro- 
tecting the  Puritans,  he  was  himself  denounced  as  a 
Puritan.  If  he  read  the  Bible  instead  of  falling  into 
the  vices  of  the  times,  if  he  went  to  church  on  Sun- 
day instead  of  going  to  the  sports  on  that  day,  he 
was  scorned  as  a  precisian  and  a  hypocrite.  Yet 
in  spite  of  these  and  other  obstacles  the  better  spirit 
enlarged  by  religious  ties  was  steadily  working  for 
better  things.  Men  of  genius  like  Bacon,  Hales, 
Sandys,  and  others  were  aiding  progress  by  their 
enlarged  views,  Parliament  was  stoutly  resisting  the 
King's  unjust  claims  of  prerogative,  the  religious 
Puritans  were  coalescing  with  the  political  Puritans, 
the  inquiries  ordered  by  the  Commons  into  bribery 
in  the  courts  reached  far  enough  to  touch  and  purge 
also  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  The  house  of  Lords, 
having  prelates  in  it,  was  slower  to  push  ahead  either 
in  church  betterment  or  against  royal  claims. 

Several  sects  which  had  their  initial  existence  in 
preceding  years  took  at  this  time  more  definite  form 
and  greater  prominence.  They  were  pleading  and 
writing  for  some  degree  of  toleration  if  only  for  less 
strictness  of  the  King  and  of  the  prelates.  Dissent 
looking  toward  toleration  grew  apace.  Such  pa- 
triots as  opposed  the  assumptions  of  the  King  were 
called  political  Puritans,  as  those  who  dissented  from 
the  claims  of  the  hierarchy  were  called  religious 
Puritans.  There  was  a  trend  in  the  state  church 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  249 

toward  papacy,  for  the  prelates  admitted  that  the 
Roman  church  was  a  true  one,  the  bishop  of  Rome 
being  the  first  bishop  of  Christendom.  In  his  later 
years  James  seemed  to  have  leaned  heavily  toward 
the  Romanist  beliefs.  Go  as  the  church  prelates 
and  court  would,  the  more  thoughtful  of  the  common 
people  moved  toward  Puritanism,  and  some  of  the 
nobility  heartily  sympathized  with  that  trend.  The 
ablest  writers  of  the  period  were  Puritans.  The 
migration  which  began  peopling  America  went  in 
quest  of  more  religious  freedom  and  life. 

On  March  27,  1624,  King  James  died.  A  frag- 
ment of  the  old  paganism,  a  belief  in  witchcraft, 
persisted  to  this  time  and  after.  During  the  first 
year  of  James'  reign  Parliament  passed  an  act  mak- 
ing witchcraft  felony.  The  King  studying  theology 
also  dipped  into  demonology,  accepted  the  existence 
of  witches,  debating  why  the  devil  worked  more  with 
aged  women  than  with  others.  During  his  reign 
many  old  women  suffered  death  under  this  accusa- 
tion. Between  1560-1600  it  is  claimed  by  good  au- 
thority that  eight  thousand  people  were  burned  for 
witchcraft.  On  one  day  in  1591  thirty-one  were 
so  destroyed.  More  stringent  laws  increased  the 
holocaust  so  that  the  estimate  down  to  1680  is  of 
seventy  thousand  victims.  While  the  Independents 
had  the  power  under  Cromwell,  the  burning  ceased. 
That  this  delusion  should  persist  in  New  England  is 
the  more  strange,  since  that  country  was  peopled 
mostly  by  highly  cultured  religious  refugees. 

Some  of  the  refugees  to  Holland,  finding  that  their 
families  were  likely  to  be  absorbed  by  the  Dutch, 


250  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

concluded,  since  they  longed  to  retain  English  speech 
and  spirit,  to  seek  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  Amer- 
ica. By  going  there  they  could  be  loyal  English- 
men, yet  worship  God  according  to  their  religious 
insight  and  conscience.  Securing  permission  to 
settle  on  some  of  England's  possessions  in  the  New 
World,  though  not  securing  the  promise  of  tolera- 
tion even  there,  they  determined  to  go.  John  Robin- 
son spent  a  day  with  them  in  fasting  and  prayer  as 
they  were  ready  to  embark.  To  him  it  appeared 
that  the  Established  Church  would  go  no  farther  in 
reform,  nor  the  Lutherans  farther  than  the  words 
of  Luther,  nor  the  Calvinists  beyond  the  teachings 
of  Calvin,  progress  seeming  to  have  no  more  promise 
through  these  sects.  He  besought  the  ones  em- 
barking "to  be  ready  to  receive  whatever  truth  shall 
be  made  known  to  you  from  the  written  word  of 
God,"  confident  that  new  truths  were  to  shine  forth 
from  that  book  for  humanity.  It  was  a  fair  blos- 
som of  Christian  truth  applied  to  rights  when  the 
little  group  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  subscribed 
to  the  simple  declaration  "to  enact,  constitute,  and 
frame  such  just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts, 
constitutions  and  offices  from  time  to  time,  as  shall 
be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for  the  good 
of  the  colony;  with  which  we  promise  all  due  sub- 
mission and  obedience." 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

The  religious  life  of  England  might  seem  to  have 
fair  promise  of  enlargement  when  Charles  First  came 
to  the  throne,  for  he  was  represented  as  temperate, 
chaste,  serious.  "He  is  zealous  for  God's  truth, 
diligently  frequents  and  attentively  hearkens  to 
prayers  and  sermons."  Such  a  marked  change  in 
royalty  from  the  iniquities  of  his  father's  court  must 
have  encouraged  the  truly  pious  of  the  land.  But 
with  this  fair  promise  two  things  soon  chilled  such 
encouragement,  for  he  was  married  to  a  French 
Catholic  princess,  Henrietta  Maria,  whose  influence, 
brought  up  as  she  had  been  in  the  atmosphere  of  ab- 
solutism practiced  in  the  French  court,  was  against 
the  parliamentary  control  of  the  king,  while  her 
strong  devotion  to  the  Catholic  faith  gave  alarm  to 
the  English.  The  other  thing  that  alarmed  a  very 
large  portion  of  Charles'  subjects  was  his  insistence 
upon  uniformity.  Abbot,  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, was  tender  toward  Protestant  Dissenters, 
which  so  sharply  drew  the  royal  displeasure  upon 
him  that  for  a  season  he  was  suspended  from  his 
official  duties. 

To  the  tolerant  Abbot  in  the  primacy  succeeded 
the  intolerant  Laud.  To  him  and  his  clergy  it 
seemed  enough  if  the  regular  routine  of  the  liturgy 
was  kept  up  and  the  war  vigorously  pressed  against 
nonconformity.  Repress  nonconformity  as  it  might, 
the  hierarchy  with  law  and  power  and  royalty  at  its 

251 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

command  could  not  wholly  force  conformity.  Stout 
souls  stood  out.  They  saw  a  trend  toward  the  hate- 
ful popery,  and  for  themselves  felt  that  they  had  an 
inherent  right  to  worship  God  according  to  the  light 
they  possessed.  Collier  is  of  the  opinion  that  had 
not  the  rebellion  come  on,  Laud  would  no  doubt  have 
converted  or  crushed  the  Puritan  sect  and  recovered 
his  whole  province  to  conformity.  To  this  pitiable 
end  he  seems  to  have  labored  to  the  neglect  of  proper 
clerical  matters,  for  in  his  reports  to  the  king  he 
spoke  of  poor  vicarages,  small  curateships  and 
churches  lying  in  rubbish.  Much  dissatisfaction  was 
felt  at  the  way  Laud  and  others  were  assuming  some 
of  the  papistical  rites  and  doctrines  abandoned  in 
preceding  years.  Invocation  of  saints  was  encour- 
aged, so  was  auricular  confession,  merit  of  good 
works,  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  others. 

Much  dissatisfaction  arose  at  the  extreme  ritualis- 
tic course  of  Laud  and  some  of  his  associate  prelates. 
The  laws  were  so  uncertain  that  Parliament  deter- 
mined to  reform  them.  Under  Laud,  the  clergy 
urged  the  divine  right  of  the  episcopacy,  thus  making 
this  claim  a  powerful  aid  to  the  supreme  assumptions 
of  that  dynasty.  It  is  no  wonder  that  a  Parliament 
possessed  by  a  spirit  of  progress  and  reform  should 
be  aroused  when  it  saw  prelates  and  King  pushing 
by  word  and  act  toward  extreme  arbitrary  power. 
The  bill  of  164$,  excluding  the  bishops  from  the 
House  of  Lords,  emanating  in  the  Commons  and 
signed  by  the  King,  was  a  most  natural  one  when  it 
is  remembered  that  the  House  of  Commons  was  grow- 
ing more  and  more  Puritan  in  its  spirit  and  numbers. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  253 

Great  statesmen  were  in  that  House,  far-seeing 
legislators  and  hot-hearted  patriots.  The  Civil  War 
has  been  called  the  war  of  the  episcopacy,  since 
the  insistence  of  the  hierarchy  for  power  and  place 
were  fuel  fed  to  the  fires  of  patriotism. 

The  friction  between  Parliament  and  encroaching 
power  represented  both  by  King  and  prelates  had 
been  deepening  as  the  years  had  passed  since  the  ac- 
cession of  Charles,  and  now,  although  the  Parliament 
was  composed  largely  of  churchmen,  the  questions  at 
issue  caused  an  acute  situation.  Several  dissolutions 
had  taken  place  when  the  Parliament,  meeting  in 
1640,  passed  an  act  that  it  could  be  dissolved  only 
by  its  own  action.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Long  Parliament.  Probably  that  body  wanted  the 
Liturgy  retained,  but  also  wanted  to  be  rid  of  the 
bad  men  in  state  and  church  who  were  leading  the 
King  the  wrong  ways  and  the  nation  to  apparent 
ruin.  Against  the  position  of  the  King  and  hier- 
archy the  Parliament  was  sustained  by  petitions 
pouring  in  upon  it,  one  of  fifteen  thousand  names 
from  the  people  of  London,  and  another  of  seven  hun- 
dred ministers  protesting  against  the  ceremonies  of 
the  church. 

In  the  progress  of  events,  Laud  became  so  obnox- 
ious to  Parliament  that  the  Commons  sent  to  the 
House  of  Lords  a  bill  of  impeachment  for  high 
treason.  The  Scots  said  he  was  linked  in  treasonable 
matters  with  Strafford,  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland,  who 
was  already  in  the  Tower,  where  Laud  was  now 
placed.  Charles  tried  a  conciliatory  course,  admit- 
ting that  the  prelates  had  overstrained  authority,  to 


254  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

correct  which  he  would  join  with  the  Parliament. 
Parliament  purposed  extreme  measures,  one  being  to 
cut  off  all  the  revenues  of  the  Establishment  by  sup- 
pressing the  deaneries  and  chapters. 

In  an  unwilling  way  the  King  acceded  to  some  of 
the  stern  demands  of  Parliament,  allowing  a  priest 
now  and  then  to  be  put  to  death,  ordering  the  courts 
to  enforce  the  penal  laws  against  priests  and  Jesuits, 
and  offering  a  hundred  pounds'  reward  for  the  arrest 
of  a  Doctor  Smith,  the  Catholic  bishop.  As  the  con- 
test deepened  between  Charles  and  his  Parliament, 
he  was  more  inclined  toward  his  Catholic  subjects 
who  gave  him  assurance  of  sustaining  him  in  return 
for  some  toleration.  Thus,  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
are  said  to  have  offered  him,  if  some  toleration  was 
granted  them,  an  army  of  five  hundred  horsemen 
and  five  thousand  footmen.  He  had  made  one 
Catholic  Lord  High  Treasurer,  one  Secretary 
of  State,  another  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
while  many  of  their  nobles  attended  his  court. 
He  also  gave  places  in  the  army  to  them,  and  in 
the  Civil  War  they  proved  some  of  his  most  loyal 
supporters. 

Dissent  became  more  and  more  assertive.  The 
preachers  of  rights  and  freedom  called  lecturers  mul- 
tiplied in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Often  these 
men  were  aided  and  protected  by  the  gentry. 
Prominent  families  would  use  them  as  tutors  in  their 
households  to  cover  their  more  public  work.  Great 
crowds  attended  these  lectures  showing  the  soul  hun- 
ger of  the  people.  But  prelatical  zeal  followed  them 
sharply  being  desperate  especially  if  these  lecturers 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


255 


or  men  in  livings  preached  against  Rome  or 
Arminius. 

A  spirit  was  arising  called  Erastianism,  named 
after  Erastus,  a  continental  writer,  who  claimed  that 
in  a  commonwealth  when  the  magistrate  professed 
Christianity,  offenses  against  morality  and  religion 
should  not  be  punished  by  the  church  powers, 
especially  by  excommunication.  At  this  time  in  the 
Commons  the  lawyers  particularly,  led  by  the  pro- 
found Selden,  were  mostly  Erastians,  believing  no 
church  government  to  be  of  divine  right  but  of 
human  conditions. 

So  much  were  ceremonies  insisted  on  that  the  po- 
sition at  the  communion  table  aroused  much  hard 
feeling.  To  meet  the  growing  spirit  of  democracy 
it  had  been  put  in  the  middle  of  the  church  so  that 
the  people  could  surround  it,  but  Laud  insisted  that 
it  must  be  put  at  the  east  end  of  the  raised  chancel 
where  the  altar  had  stood  in  preceding  times  and  be 
fenced  in  with  a  rail. 

In  the  neighboring  kingdom  of  Scotland,  the  hot- 
blooded  Celts  could  illy  endure  the  impositions  laid 
upon  them  by  the  Established  Church  and  the  galling 
deeds  of  the  Star  Chamber.  As  their  pet  Calvinism 
was  proscribed  and  the  communion  table  set  in  the 
place  of  the  old-time  altar,  as  well  as  the  insistence 
for  the  Book  of  Prayer,  the  growing  aversion  of  the 
people  burst  out  into  mob  violence.  On  the  Sunday 
when  the  order  was  to  read  the  service  book  in  all  the 
Edinburgh  churches,  a  mob  of  men  and  women  of 
the  low  classes  broke  out  into  personal  violence 
against  the  clerics,  the  dean  and  bishop,  and  the 


256  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

small  stools  used  to  sit  on  were  thrown  at  the  priest's 
head.  The  Scot  Council  did  not  haste  to  punish  the 
rioters  of  Edinburgh  and  elsewhere,  the  assuring 
words  of  the  King  did  not  allay  the  excitement,  while 
his  purpose  to  send  an  army  and  fleet  against  the 
rebellious  city  hurried  matters  toward  a  revolution. 

Finally,  in  1638,  petitions  to  the  Council  being  in 
vain,  the  Scots  took  matters  into  their  own  hands  and 
drew  up  the  famous  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 
They  charged  the  bishops  with  betraying  their  re- 
ligion, urged  that  the  lecturing  preachers  be  restored 
to  the  places  from  which  they  had  been  driven,  and 
petitioned  relief  from  the  liturgy  and  canons. 
Charles,  in  response  to  these  things,  put  in  an  excuse 
for  setting  the  hierarchy  over  them,  and  at  the  same 
time  threatened  the  turbulent.  This  attitude  of  the 
King  convinced  the  Scots  that  the  remedy  must  be 
sought  among  themselves,  so  they  proceeded  to  form 
a  government  of  their  own  consisting  of  four  orders, 
nobles,  barons,  burgesses,  and  ministers.  The  Cove- 
nant, an  epochal  document,  was  signed  by  them,  bind- 
ing them  to  maintain  the  religion  as  then  professed, 
to  preserve  his  majesty's  person  and  to  defend  them- 
selves against  all  persons  whomsoever.  The  Book  of 
Prayer  was  renounced  as  were  the  governing 
canons,  the  High  Commission  Court  and  the  Six 
Articles  of  Perth,  while  they  called  upon  God  to  wit- 
ness their  loyalty  since  they  took  these  positions 
only  in  defense  of  the  rights  of  conscience.  They 
boldly  claimed  the  right  to  frame  their  own  religious 
polity. 

So  democratic  was  the  plan  of  the  kirk  that  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  257 

assembly  by  election  was  composed  of  men  of  all 
ranks,  and  in  this  body,  partly  judicial  in  its  powers, 
nobles  for  immoral  crimes  might  be  judged  by 
peasants.  In  the  freedom  of  the  pulpit  they  led  all 
Europe.  Of  the  commissioner  sent  by  Charles  to 
arrange  matters,  the  Scots  demanded  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Parliament  and  church  assembly,  declaring 
they  would  sooner  renounce  their  baptism  than  their 
Covenant.  Failing  in  these  demands  they  flew  to 
arms,  blockading  the  King's  troops  in  the  castles  of 
Edinburgh  and  Sterling.  Charles  temporized.  He 
could  not  permit  such  bold  repudiation  of  royal 
authority.  Offer  as  he  might  to  grant  an  assembly 
and  Parliament  on  condition  that  the  hierarchy  be 
recognized  and  all  disturbances  cease,  it  was  not  sat- 
isfactory. The  assembly  the  Scots  elected  com- 
manded the  prelates  to  appear  before  it,  charging 
them  with  "heresy,  simony,  perjury,  incest,  adultery, 
fornication  and  breach  of  the  Sabbath."  The 
bishops  were  deposed  and  also  such  ministers  as  did 
not  accept  the  Covenant.  Sustaining  an  agent  in 
London  they  kept  in  touch  with  the  nonconformists 
of  England. 

In  Ireland,  religious  affairs  were  as  unsettled  as  in 
Scotland.  The  Irish  were  hot-hearted  Catholics,  the 
efforts  to  win  them  to  Protestantism  up  to  this  time 
having  been  in  vain.  The  King  soon  attempted  to 
remedy  the  imperfections  of  the  Established  Church, 
since  under  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  and  by 
other  dissolutions,  its  efficiency  had  been  greatly 
lessened.  The  Catholics  thinking  that  the  new  King 
leaned  toward  their  faith,  or  would  wink  at  their 


258  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

illegal  purposes  to  establish  their  worship  and  work, 
set  up  some  religious  houses  in  Dublin,  the  friars  ap- 
pearing in  the  streets  in  their  peculiar  attire  and 
affronting  the  mayor  and  archbishop.  By  order  of 
Charles  the  obnoxious  home  of  these  friars  was  de- 
molished and  their  houses  in  Dublin  changed  into 
Houses  of  Correction,  though  some  toleration  of 
them  was  permitted.  But  in  almost  all  the  country 
the  vastly  more  numerous  population  kept  up  its  own 
form  of  worship.  In  spite  of  the  King's  efforts  to 
remedy  the  evils,  reports  from  the  archbishop  to  him 
showed  a  most  lamentable  condition,  for  in  Dublin  the 
churches  were  used  for  stables,  dwelling  houses 
treated  no  better,  while  the  vaults  of  Christ  Church 
itself  were  made  into  tippling  rooms  by  the  Catholic 
renters,  where  wine,  beer,  and  tobacco  were  sold  at 
the  same  time  that  religious  services  were  going  on 
above. 

Wentworth,  the  Lord  Deputy,  tried  to  second  the 
King  in  his  efforts  to  make  things  better,  but  did  it 
in  a  way  to  alienate  the  Irish  still  further. 

Matters  goading  the  Irish  to  desperation,  in 
October,  1641,  they  broke  out  into  a  rebellion,  in 
which  the  ferocious  spirit  of  that  partly  civilized 
people  found  no  limit.  The  avowed  purpose  was  to 
blot  out  the  hated  English  from  the  island.  To  this 
end,  murders,  ravaging,  outraging  females,  burning 
property,  whippings,  "in  cause  of  loyalty  and  re- 
ligion," went  on  until  Protestants  were  killed  by  the 
ten  thousand  with  unspeakable  barbarity,  driven  to 
the  bogs  to  die  of  hunger  and  exposure  and  harried 
by  all  the  means  that  such  an  enraged  horde  could 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  259 

invent.  The  hatred  was  both  religious  and  racial. 
The  whole  number  murdered  in  this  awful  massacre 
is  put  by  some  historians  as  high  as  two  hundred 
thousand  but  this  is  doubtless  an  exaggeration, 
though  it  is  certain  that  the  victims  were  numbered 
by  the  scores  of  thousands.  As  the  war  between 
King  and  Parliament  in  England  came  on,  Charles 
sympathetically  directed  Ormond,  commanding  in 
Ireland,  to  conclude  a  peace  advantageous  to  the  na- 
tives, when  it  was  ordered  that  the  Catholics  should 
be  discharged  from  taking  the  oath  of  supremacy, 
giving  them  the  freedom  of  their  religious  ritual,  a 
ministry  of  their  own,  schools  for  their  children  with 
attainders  and  outlawries  made  void,  and  a  decree  of 
oblivion  given  out.  To  ensure  these  favors  they 
were  to  hold  possession  of  the  forts  and  cities  already 
occupied  by  them. 

The  people  were  aroused  and  alive  to  the  progress 
of  matters,  sending  petitions  for  the  Established 
Church  and  against  it. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

The  Parliament  to  replace  the  Convocation  and  to 
organize  the  revised  church  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Anglican  hierarchy  now  practically  abolished, 
planned  the  famous  Westminster  Assembly.  It  was 
composed  of  the  delegates  from  each  county  to  the 
number  of  about  one  hundred  fifty  of  both  divines 
and  laymen  nominated  by  the  Knights  of  the  shires. 
This  was  to  be  a  national  synod  and  met  in  16&3. 
Its  members  were  prelates,  Presbyterians,  Independ- 
ents, and  members  of  Parliament,  to  whom  later  were 
added  Scot  commissioners. 

But  the  preponderance  of  members  was  Presby- 
terian, who  plainly  aimed  to  throw  aside  the  episco- 
pacy and  govern  the  religion  of  England  by  assem- 
blies, synods  and  Presbyterian  rules.  Of  course  to 
this  plan  there  were  many  objections.  The  An- 
glicans could  not  without  a  struggle  see  their  elab- 
orate system  overthrown,  and  finding  the  current  too 
strong  against  them  that  party  withdrew.  The  In- 
dependents pleaded  for  a  toleration  which  would  allow 
some  scope  in  church  organization  and  government 
as  well  as  for  the  ordination  of  their  ministers,  but 
such  latitude  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  Presbyterian 
element.  That  element  insisted  on  uniformity  but 
the  growing  spirit  of  freedom  manifested  most 
strongly  in  the  Assembly  by  the  Independents  urged, 
that  not  uniformity,  but  toleration  of  different 
shades  of  belief  and  forms  of  church  government  best 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  261 

met  human  needs.  In  despair  the  Independents  de- 
clared by  one  of  their  champions,  Burroughs,  that  if 
their  congregations  could  not  have  liberty  they  re- 
solved to  suffer  or  to  migrate  to  some  other  place  in 
the  world  where  they  could  find  liberty. 

The  eyes  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  were 
turned  for  help  toward  Scotland  like  those  of  the 
Parliament.  Some  Scot  commissioners  were  added 
to  the  Assembly,  of  course  holding  in  their  hand  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  This  would  be  Eng- 
land's panacea.  After  some  changes  of  this  great 
document  by  the  English  Assembly  it  was  adopted 
for  the  church  government  and  faith  of  the  three 
kingdoms.  The  Covenant,  holding  as  it  did  then  for 
the  glory  of  God,  the  advancement  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, the  honor  and  happiness  of  the  King,  the  public 
peace,  liberty  and  safety  of  the  Kingdom,  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  Parliament,  for  the  extermination 
of  popery  and  prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  profane- 
ness,  schism  and  whatever  was  contrary  to  sound 
doctrine,  stood  as  the  Magna  Carta  of  the  religious 
life.  Its  rich  fruits  are  blessing  the  world  to-day. 
On  its  adoption  by  the  Assembly,  the  Parliament,  in 
September,  1643,  came  in  a  body  to  St.  Margaret's 
Church  and  with  uplifted  hands  swore  to  uphold  its 
provisions. 

A  heart  throb  of  mingled  despair  and  joy  was  felt 
in  all  this  high  purpose.  The  protest  against  this 
Presbyterian  dominance  was  deep.  The  tolerance! 
urged  by  some  of  the  most  advanced  spirits  had  not 
been  accorded.  England,  though  freed  from  prel- 
acy, was  bound  with  presbytery.  Those  advancing 


262  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

spirits  could  not  consent  to  this  condition.  Presby- 
tery was  about  as  stoutly  insisting  on  uniformity  as 
had  prelacy.  The  yoke  was  too  heavy.  Conformity 
was  not  a  necessity.  Dissent  was  not  treason  or  se- 
dition. Selden,  Milton,  and  a  host  of  lesser  men 
wrote,  spoke,  preached  their  objections.  Many  with- 
drew from  the  Assembly,  its  sessions,  held  for  about 
six  years,  amounting  to  above  eleven  hundred  meet- 
ings, hardly  ever  had  more  than  about  half  of  its 
original  numbers.  The  fire  of  its  spirit  gradually 
burned  out  and  leaving  as  its  products  the  modified 
Covenant,  the  Lesser  and  the  Greater  Catechism,  it 
fell  into  senility  and  passed  from  men's  sight. 

Parliament  vigorously  took  up  the  matter  of 
church  reform  since  church  and  state  then  were  never 
thought  as  being  other  than  an  inseparable  unity. 
Some  of  its  radical  acts  ordered  the  removal  from  the 
churches  and  open  places  and  their  destruction  all 
monuments  deemed  of  superstition  and  idolatry,  such 
as  the  representations  of  angels  and  saints,  crucifixes 
and  holy  water  fonts,  nor  must  be  used  any  surplice, 
copes  or  other  superstitious  vestments,  while  the  Sab- 
bath was  to  be  strictly  observed,  and  to  give  force  to 
this  last,  the  King's  Book  of  Sports  for  Sunday 
amusement  was  to  be  called  in  and  publicly  burned. 
Later  it  was  ordered  that  saints'  days,  even  Christ- 
mas, Whitsuntide  and  Easter,  should  be  given  up  and 
other  festivals  "commonly  called  holy  days,"  substi- 
tuting in  place  of  them  every  other  Tuesday  as  a  day 
of  recreation.  It  was  ordered  also  that  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  be  thrown  aside,  and  the  Directory, 
a  liturgy  prepared  by  the  Westminster  Assembly,  be 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  263 

published  in  its  place.  It  was  a  hearty,  bold  at- 
tempt to  crowd  religion  forward  by  law,  and  failed 
of  course.  They  did  not  see  then  that  religion  must 
be  a  growth  in  human  lives,  a  direction  of  judgment, 
conscience  and  free  will. 

One  pasage  in  the  history  of  the  Long  Parliament 
which  has  attracted  much  attention  was  its  treat- 
ment of  Archbishop  Laud.  After  three  years  of  im- 
prisonment in  the  Tower  he  was  brought  to  trial. 
His  leaning  toward  popery  and  disregard  of  legal 
ways  joined  with  his  imperious  claims  of  deference, 
almost  papal,  could  not  fail  of  arousing  bitter  hatred 
among  honest  Englishmen. 

It  is  hard  at  this  distance  to  understand  the  heat 
of  the  Puritan  element  against  Laud  unless  we  see 
with  Macaulay  that  "of  all  the  prelates  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  Laud  had  departed  farthest  from 
the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  and  had  drawn 
nearest  to  Rome.  .  .  .  Under  his  direction 
every  corner  of  the  realm  was  subjected  to  a  constant 
and  minute  inspection.  Every  little  congregation 
of  Separatists  was  tracked  out  and  broken  up. 
Even  the  devotion  of  private  families  could  not  escape 
the  vigilance  of  his  spies."  As  the  House  of  Lords 
hesitated  to  take  action  in  the  case,  the  Commons 
changed  the  accusation  from  treason  to  attainder. 
The  accusation  finally  took  a  three-fold  form :  first 
his  efforts  to  subvert  the  laws,  second  to  overthrow 
the  Protestant  religion,  and  third  to  overthrow  the 
rights  of  Parliament.  The  remarkable  prelate  was 
sentenced.  "His  great  age  and  feebleness,  his  influ- 
ence already  lost  in  the  three  years  of  his  imprison- 


264  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

merit  might  have  moved  a  Puritan  Parliament  to  let 
him  end  his  days  in  harmless  living." 

Passions  ran  high  in  those  turbulent  times.  Pe- 
titions came  up  to  Parliament  to  clean  out  the  hier- 
archy root  and  branch,  as  they  expressed  it,  so  this 
phrase  became  a  popular  catch-word  with  the 
Puritan  party.  Names  marking  great  leaders  began 
to  appear,  as  Pym,  Sir  Harry  Vane,  Hampden  and 
others.  This  turbulence  must  certainly  have  had  the 
effect  to  produce  great  leaders.  The  modified 
church  organization  projected  by  the  Assembly  and 
Parliament  proposed  to  have  the  congregations  elect 
laymen  as  ruling  elders,  unsettled  questions  in  any 
church  were  to  be  referred  to  a  group  of  triers  be- 
yond them,  thence  if  still  unsettled  to  a  classis,  thence 
appeal  could  be  made  to  a  provincial  assembly,  and 
from  that  to  the  national  synod.  All  these  bodies 
were  subject  to  Parliament,  since  Erastian  principles 
held  sway  in  that  body.  To  give  the  laity  more  voice 
in  church  management  was  a  valuable  step  forward 
in  religious  life. 

As  might  be  foreseen,  the  Universities  created  and 
sustained  by  the  Church  would  side  with  that  and 
the  King  against  Parliamentary  action.  Oxford 
turned  over  its  massive  silver  plate  to  the  King  for 
money  to  sustain  his  army,  many  of  the  students  and 
lesser  teachers  enlisted  under  his  banner,  while  Cam- 
bridge, though  occupied  by  a  Parliamentary  army, 
persisted  in  the  same  spirit.  While  thus  occupied  it 
was  decided  to  present  the  League  and  Covenant  to 
the  Presidents  and  Fellows  of  the  various  colleges  for 
signing  and  to  eject  such  as  did  not  sign.  Almost 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  265 

a  complete  change  was  necessary,  but  strong,  edu- 
cated men  were  on  hand  to  take  the  vacant  places 
so  that  no  serious  lapse  in  scholarship  took  place,  and 
many  who  were  students  at  this  period  became  the 
great  men  later.  As  the  Parliamentary  forces  came 
into  control  of  Oxford,  which  had  been  much  injured 
by  the  King's  occupancy  as  headquarters,  similar 
steps  as  those  at  Cambridge  were  taken  to  place  the 
University  in  sympathy  with  the  Puritan  movement. 
The  sects  shooting  up  in  the  prolific  times  before 
had  now  better  chance  of  growth.  The  Puritan  had 
become  a  Presbyterian  and  rapidly  rose  to  power. 
This  Puritan  element  was  largely  composed  of  the 
middle  classes,  the  small  sturdy  farmer,  mechanic, 
tradesman,  the  progressive,  thinking  part  of  the  na- 
tion, a  few  of  the  nobility  being  associated  with  them 
but  holding  no  commanding  place.  The  rabble  fol- 
lowed the  Cavaliers.  Each  of  the  two  parties  had 
distinguishing  marks.  The  speech,  expression  of  the 
face,  clothing,  demeanor,  all  marked  the  Puritan. 
Their  hair  was  cut  short,  bringing  on  them  the 
epithet  of  Roundheads,  while  the  nobility  and 
courtiers  allowed  their  hair  to  grow  long  and  loose. 
In  Parliament  the  Presbyterians  had  steadily  risen 
in  number  and  power.  The  stout  Long  Parliament 
was  dominated  largely  by  their  spirit  and  weight. 
Struggle  as  they  might  the  Anglicans  had  to  bow  to 
the  Presbyterians.  Not  all  the  decisions  of  the  As- 
sembly were  approved  by  Parliament.  Really  the 
Presbyterians  aimed  not  at  liberty  but  at  power. 
Calvinism  predominated  in  Parliament  as  in  Assem- 
bly. The  two  catechisms  put  forth,  the  larger  as  a 


266  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

body  of  divinity  for  the  ministers,  the  shorter  for 
children  and  lighter  use,  have  guided  the  teaching  of 
this  denomination  to  the  present.  Holding  control  in 
Parliament  they  passed  ordinances  with  the  penalty 
of  death  upon  those  denying  the  existence  of  God,  the 
Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  truth  of  the  Bible, 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  or  of  salvation  in  Christ. 
To  prison  must  all  go  permanently  who  believed  such 
lesser  errors  as  that  all  could  be  saved,  that  souls  go 
to  purgatory,  that  the  baptism  of  infants  was  unlaw- 
ful or  void.  The  "Power  of  the  Keys"  or  of  ex- 
communication, they  claimed  abode  by  divine  ap- 
pointment in  the  eldership  or  presbytery  so  that 
these  could  suspend  from  communion  and  exclude 
from  the  church.  London  and  other  parts  were 
aroused  to  a  fierce  heat.  Preachers  harangued  the 
people,  impelling  them  in  crowds  to  the  Parliament 
doors,  while  theological  matters  were  discussed  in 
business  houses,  in  the  coffee  rooms,  on  the  streets,  at 
the  fireside.  Physicians  dealt  out  theological  issues 
with  their  pills  and  nostrums.  In  the  lower  schools 
and  in  the  Universities  color  was  given  all  teachings 
by  the  religious  questions.  England  and  Scotland 
became  a  great  theological  seminary.  As  the  bishops 
refused  to  ordain  those  of  the  parliamentary  party  a 
large  committee  on  recommendation  of  the  Assembly 
was  appointed  by  Parliament,  any  seven  of  whom 
could  ordain  men,  since  they  believed  that  bishops 
and  presbyters  were  of  the  same  order  and  that 
church  government  by  presbyters  was  of  divine 
origin.  Milton  said  in  his  protest  to  the  Presbyterian 
Model,  that  "New  Presbyter  was  but  old  priest  writ 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  267 

large."  Much  confusion  in  church  services  existed. 
The  Anglican  service  was  not  wholly  suppressed, 
nor  that  of  the  Independents,  nor  Baptists,  nor  pa- 
pists. 

The  Independents  were  led  by  most  able  men, 
Goodwin,  Nye,  Bridges,  Burroughs,  men  who,  in  the 
persecutions  at  home  and  in  the  wider  opportunities 
of  the  continent,  had  learned  some  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  toleration.  Going  to  the  Bible 
for  their  authority  the  Independents  in  common  with 
all  the  factions  found  in  it  the  guide  of  their  polity. 
To  them  the  congregation  of  organized  worshipers 
was  the  only  authority  in  church  government,  since 
they  recognized  no  synod,  assembly  or  convocation. 
Cromwell  and  many  officers  of  his  magnificent  army 
became  Independents,  the  spirit  of  the  army  being 
largely  shaped  by  them,  though  the  Ironsides  were 
composed  of  devout  men  from  every  shade  of  faith. 
When  this  faction  was  in  control  of  the  government, 
practical  toleration  existpd  toward  all  religionists, 
though  looking  askance  toward  Catholics  and  Epis- 
copalians, all  penal  laws  for  religious  reasons  were 
repealed,  thus  leading  in  these  Christian  steps  not 
only  all  the  sects  in  England  but  all  the  peoples  of 
Europe.  Their  service  consisted  of  Scripture  read- 
ing and  exposition,  prayer,  preaching,  baptism,  com- 
munion, psalms  sung,  collections  for  the  poor.  They 
had  pastors,  teachers,  ruling  elders  and  deacons,  rul- 
ing by  admonition,  their  excommunication  being  only 
exclusion  from  the  communion.  The  Independent 
faction,  in  power  in  the  army  and  Parliament,  di- 
rected the  arrest  of  King  Charles  and  pressed  the 


268  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

steps  leading  to  his  confinement,  trial  and  execution. 

By  this  time,  1645,  the  Baptists  had  so  increased 
as  to  have  fifty  congregations  in  London.  Their 
church  government  was  properly  congregational, 
their  confession  of  faith  Calvinistic,  they  were  in  fa- 
vor of  toleration,  admitted  lay  preachers,  and  would 
baptize  only  grown  people.  They  were  especially 
successful  among  the  lower,  more  ignorant  classes, 
though  people  of  learning  and  parts  joined  them. 
As  in  the  case  of  all  sectaries  these  were  shamefully 
persecuted,  mobs  broke  up  their  meetings,  and  threw 
their  preachers  into  the  rivers  and  ponds.  A  learned 
churchman  proposed  to  demolish  the  sect  with  a  book 
bearing  this  peculiar  title,  "The  Dippers  Dipt,  or  the 
Anabaptists  Duckt,  and  plunged  over  Head  and 
Ears."  Through  such  chinks  of  spirit  and  language 
come  glints  of  information  about  that  age. 

Many  indications  show  the  activity  of  mind  in  that 
period.  What  is  now  known  as  Unitarianism  began 
to  cut  a  figure.  Complaints  were  made  that  the 
divinity  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  fre- 
quently in  public  called  in  question.  One  canon 
from  the  Convocation  of  1640  was  that  no  one  should 
import  Unitarian  books,  or  print  or  dispose  of  them 
under  penalty  of  a  call  before  the  implacable  Star 
Chamber.  But  men  in  London  were  preaching  ere 
long  openly  that  Jesus  was  a  prophet  indeed  who 
could  work  miracles  but  was  not  God.  Like  the 
Independents  and  Baptists  they  were  in  favor  of  tol- 
eration. A  preacher,  one  Best,  on  being  accused  of 
denying  the  Trinity,  was  condemned  to  death  by  the 
Commons,  but  on  being  visited  by  some  divines  to  hear 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  269 

his  exact  confession  of  faith,  he  was  discharged  as 
not  being  very  ultra. 

If,  in  a  general  way  the  religious  life  of  England  at 
that  time  should  be  divided  into  two  factions,  the  one 
of  ritualists,  the  other  non-ritualists,  there  was  still  a 
small  intermediate  party  designated  as  Latitudina- 
rians.  Names  remembered  in  the  field  of  ethics  and 
philosophy  were  in  that  party,  Chillingworth,  Lord 
Falkland,  Hobbes,  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury. 
Chillingworth,  who  had  accepted  Catholicism  and 
then  passed  back  again  to  the  Episcopal  church,  used 
his  great  intellect  in  favor  of  the  earlier  tenets  of  the 
Reformation,  the  independency  of  private  opinion, 
claiming  also  that  the  errors  of  conscientious  men  do 
not  forfeit  the  favor  of  God.  Lord  Falkland, 
learned,  brilliant,  a  leader  in  society,  the  foremost 
among  the  liberal  thinkers  of  the  day,  had  a  most 
passionate  longing  for  liberty  of  religious  thought. 
Hobbes,  when  he  entered  the  field  of  religious  discus- 
sion, deemed  the  state  supreme  in  religious  matters, 
that  the  commonwealth  should  determine  the  form  in 
religious  matters,  insisted  on  conformity  to  which  no 
resistance  should  be  made  and  claimed  that  dogmas 
should  be  the  fewest,  simplest  possible.  Lord  Her- 
bert of  Cherbury  was  the  founder  of  English  Deism, 
who  thought  that  the  essential  principles  of  religion 
were  attainable  through  innate  notions.  His  creed 
would  have  five  sections :  "First,  that  there  is  a  su- 
preme being ;  second,  that  this  being  ought  to  be  wor- 
shiped ;  third,  that  virtue  combined  with  piety  is  the 
chief  part  of  divine  worship ;  fourth,  that  men  should 
repent  of  their  sins  and  turn  from  them;  fifth,  that 


270  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

rewards  and  punishments  follow  from  the  justice  and 
goodness  of  God  both  in  this  life  and  after  it."  This 
group  of  men  had  much  to  do  in  teaching  toleration 
to  the  nation. 

Allied  it  might  seem  to  these  Latitudinarian  views 
were  the  opinions  of  a  faction  that  took  reason,  they 
said,  as  their  guide,  repudiating  compulsory  service  in 
religion  and  royalty  in  politics.  Their  democratic 
teachings  found  a  quick  lodgment  in  the  Parliamen- 
tary army,  for  this  asked  equality,  voluntary  service 
in  war,  enlargement  of  franchise,  and  freedom  of  con- 
science. These  were  the  Levelers.  Many  officers 
and  privates  fell  in  with  their  ideas,  becoming  bitter 
against  the  king  and  demanding  a  Commonwealth. 
These  things  troubled  Cromwell  and  other  leaders 
since  such  demands  were  too  advanced  for  the  Eng- 
land of  that  period.  But  the  army  had  begun  to 
show  the  democratic  spirit  in  a  manner  not  to  be 
slighted.  Goaded  to  intensity  by  the  King's  du- 
plicity, and  by  the  Presbyterian  Parliament,  the 
army  sent  an  urgent  petition  to  that  body  that  they 
wanted  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  arrears  of  their 
pay,  saying  that  as  volunteers  they  had  in  the  civil 
war  been  fighting  for  the  liberties  of  the  nation  and 
were  determined  to  have  them.  Angry  with  these 
petitioners  Parliament  would  have  thrown  them  into 
the  Tower,  but  thought  better  of  it  when  the  general 
came  before  them  with  similar  demands.  The  Parlia- 
ment ordered  the  army  to  be  disbanded.  Cromwell, 
deemed  by  them  the  leading  spirit,  they  tried  to  ar- 
rest, but  he  escaped  from  the  city  to  the  army.  Then 
the  army  seized  the  captive  king,  marched  toward 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  271 

London,  demanding  of  the  frightened  Parliament  and 
the  city  the  rights  of  conscience,  liberty,  and  encour- 
agement. Between  the  city  that  objected  to  these  de- 
mands and  the  imperious  army,  Parliament  stood  in 
a  difficult  position.  Again,  after  some  delay  and  con- 
ferences the  army  came  into  London,  bringing  those 
fugitive  members  of  Parliament  expelled  for  sympa- 
thy with  the  demands  of  the  army,  purged  the  Com- 
mons of  the  malcontents  and  set  up  the  party  with 
them  as  the  real  Parliament.  This  fragment  was 
the  famous  Rump  Parliament.  The  army  now  in- 
vested with  authority  proposed  that  all  civil  power 
be  taken  from  the  bishops,  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  be  given  up,  the  League  and  Covenant  not 
to  be  enforced,  a  mighty  stride  toward  toleration. 
But  this  advanced  position  England  in  general  was 
not  yet  prepared  to  adopt.  Suffering  generations 
must  pass  before  their  full  acceptance. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  regiments 
sent  against  Charles  by  the  Parliament  were  poorly 
prepared  either  in  their  character  or  drill  to  meet 
the  spirited  Cavaliers  of  the  King.  Cromwell  com- 
plained that  they  were  poor  tapsters  and  serving  men 
out  of  a  place.  With  his  profound  military  insight, 
seeing  this  lack  while  yet  a  colonel,  he  determined  to 
form  his  regiment  in  such  a  manner  as  to  meet  the 
enemy  on  even  ground.  Into  his  regiment  of  a  thou- 
sand men  he  would  enlist  only  freeholders  or  their 
sons,  men  fearing  God,  professing  godliness,  and  who 
would  deem  it  a  duty  to  execute  justice  upon  their 
enemies.  Having  such  men  to  start  with  who  divided 
their  time  in  camp  between  military  duties  and 
prayer  and  singing  psalms,  and  who  charged  upon 
their  enemies  calling  upon  God  while  slaying  them, 
Cromwell  could  not  fail  of  success,  and  his  men 
doubly  clad  in  cuirasses  and  religious  fervor  could 
well  be  dubbed  Ironsides.  Religious  enthusiasm  was 
successfully  pitted  against  blue  blood  and  personal 
bravery.  With  this  new  model  the  army  greatly 
differed  from  the  royal  army.  Give  orders  against 
excesses  as  he  might  and  inflict  punishment  as  he  did 
against  plundering,  Charles  could  not  keep  his  needy 
soldiers  from  robbing  and  devastating  the  country  in 
which  they  were  operating.  In  addition  to  its  higher 
religious  spirit  the  Parliamentary  army  was  better 

paid  than  the  Royalists,  since  great  rich  London  was 

272 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  273 

financially  with  the  Parliament  as  well  as  religiously. 
With  all  the  hot  partisanship  the  Parliamentary 
army  was  kept  well  in  hand.  Fairfax  was  gentle- 
hearted  and  Cromwell  was  a  remorseless  disciplina- 
rian. When  at  Truro  Fairfax  captured  six  thousand 
prisoners,  he  sent  them  to  their  homes,  giving  to  each 
man  twenty  shillings  to  pay  his  way,  nor  would  he 
permit  the  poor  fellows  to  be  insulted.  On  the  other 
hand,  Montrose,  at  Kilsyth,  taking  that  number  of 
Covenanters  put  them  to  the  sword  to  be  met  with 
reprisals  when  the  Covenanters  captured  Royalists. 

What  few  Presbyterian  ministers  could  be  induced 
to  leave  their  cosy  parishes  and  act  as  chaplains  in 
the  Parliamentary  regiments  were  pious  aids  in  deep- 
ening the  religious  fervor  of  the  Ironsides.  Little 
impiety  or  disorder  took  place,  no  swearing  or  drink- 
ing being  allowed.  Still  Cromwell  and  other  leaders 
taught  that  in  certain  great  exigencies  men  called  to 
be  the  leaders  were  released  by  that  call  from  the 
common  rules  of  morality  so  that  they  were  at  liberty 
to  deceive  and  to  prevaricate.  This  and  other  delu- 
sions had  come  down  to  that  time  as  the  fateful  lega- 
cies of  a  darker  past.  An  imperfect  growth  of  moral 
grandeur  made  possible  the  Ironsides  and  the  Com- 
monwealth. If  Puritan  austerity  lessened  the  joy 
and  lightness  of  preceding  years  there  was  a  gain  in 
manners,  in  manhood  and  womanhood.  This  was 
especially  to  be  seen  in  the  home  life,  Green  saying: 
"Home,  as  we  conceive  it  was  a  creation  of  the  Puri- 
tans." Wife  and  children  had  come  into  social  and 
religious  consideration  like  the  husband. 

There  was  need  and  room  for  improvement  in  the 


274  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

spirit  and  manners  of  the  people.  The  merciless 
punishments  inflicted,  the  brutal  mob  violence,  the  hor- 
rors of  the  prisons,  the  bloodthirsty  Jeffreys  at  the 
Great  Assize,  and  the  judicial  severity  of  lower  legal 
sinners,  the  massacres  of  prisoners  of  war,  the  sym- 
pathy for  these  brutalities  frequently  shown  by  the 
clergy  high  in  culture  and  position  now  shock  the 
reader,  grown  gentler,  let  us  hope,  through  centuries 
of  civilization  and  Christian  teaching.  People  were 
thrust  into  the  crowded  places  of  the  prisons  where 
sick  and  dying  were  subjected  to  brutalities  that  were 
unspeakable  with  a  century  and  a  half  to  pass  before 
Howard  would  obtain  some  mitigation  of  their  hor- 
rors. As  the  Irish  aiding  Charles  against  Parlia- 
ment were  captured  in  England  no  quarters  were 
granted  them,  the  sailors  being  tied  back  to  back  and 
thrown  into  the  sea.  But  their  atrocities  upon  the 
harmless  inhabitants  of  England  had  been  of  the  most 
damnable  character. 

As  in  preceding  times  the  extreme  coarseness  of 
sports  was  most  shocking.  Bear  baiting,  when  one  of 
those  poor  captive  animals  was  chained  loosely  to  a 
post  and  then  great  dogs  let  loose  upon  him,  was  most 
popular,  for  crowds  of  people  seated  around  the  pit 
would  applaud  each  poor  brute  in  turn.  In  these 
and  kindred  brutalities  the  scenes  on  a  small  scale  of 
the  old  Roman  circus  were  renewed,  and  it  was 
against  such  things  and  their  debasing  powers  that 
for  one  thing  Puritanism  put  in  its  protest  of  influ- 
ence and  law. 

Along  such  displays  of  a  brutal  spirit  a  better  one 
was  growing  up,  humane,  prayerful,  rising.  The 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  275 

Parliamentaries  whose  watchwords  were  "Law,  Re- 
ligion, Liberty,"  were  certain  that  they  were  doing 
God's  work,  common  soldiers  and  others  were  dis- 
cussing matters  of  high  moral  import  while  fighting 
the  country's  battles,  and  Parliament  itself  was 
freely  giving  money  to  relieve  those  oppressed  by 
sieges  and  devastations,  believing  that  it  conducted  a 
struggle  for  pure  religion,  piety  and  the  glory  of  God. 
That  body,  as  the  King's  efforts  to  introduce  foreign 
soldiers  to  help  him  were  thwarted,  saw  the  hand  of 
God  in  aiding  them  to  defeat  those  plans.  Milton, 
who  was  "church-outed  by  the  prelates,"  retiring  to 
his  verse  and  study,  deemed  the  vocation  of  England 
was  to  show  other  peoples  how  to  subdue  avarice  and 
ambition  and  submit  to  the  loss  of  riches.  As  a  meet- 
ing of  the  principal  officers  of  the  army  was  held  at 
Windsor  Castle  to  consider  the  issues  before  them, 
they  spent  one  whole  day  in  prayer  and  conference, 
Cromwell  exhorting  them  to  consider  fully  their  ac- 
tions and  ways  as  private  Christians.  Nor  was  the 
King  slow  in  his  appeals  and  protestations  to  the  peo- 
ple in  claiming  the  righteousness  of  his  cause,  not 
wholly  it  can  be  hoped  as  a  foil  to  the  devoutness  of 
the  other  party  but  as  a  need  in  the  dimness  of  the 
royal  vision.  The  Cavaliers  saw  the  nation's  best 
interests  and  their  own  in  royalty,  the  Parliamenta- 
rians, in  civil  liberty.  Neither  party  were  fanatics 
but  patriots.  Women  also  aided  in  raising  means  to 
carry  on  the  struggle,  those  in  London  from  the  lowly 
ranks  offering  to  Parliament  the  little  they  had  to 
give,  silver  thimbles,  bodkins,  spoons.  Nor  was  the 
King  without  those  women  who  freely  gave  their  hus- 


276  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

bands  and  sons  to  fight  his  battles  and  their  wealth 
to  sustain  his  cause.  Woman's  ministries  to  the 
wounded  and  suffering  were  constantly  put  forth 
without  reference  to  which  side  the  suffering  be- 
longed, thus  antedating  by  two  hundred  years  Flor- 
ence Nightingale  and  the  Red  Cross.  The  soldiers 
of  the  Parliamentary  army,  on  their  return  to  civil 
life,  were  noted  for  their  correct  and  industrious  lives, 
Cromwell  declaring  that  those  who  pray  and  preach 
best  fight  best. 

From  the  start  the  differences  between  Charles 
First  and  his  Parliament  hinged  upon  matters  of 
both  state  and  church.  The  deepening  antagonism 
that  was  to  lead  the  civil  war  was  manifest  in  those 
earlier  Parliaments  of  Charles  which  he  had  peremp- 
torily dissolved.  Once  the  Long  Parliament  had  de- 
clared itself  safe  from  dissolution,  the  antagonism 
went  forward  to  disruption  with  rapid  steps.  Laud 
for  a  while  after  being  sent  to  the  Tower  filled  church 
places  with  those  devoted  to  the  Establishment,  and 
on  remonstrance  of  the  Parliament,  the  King  ordered 
him  to  appoint  only  such  as  he  should  nominate,  or 
if  the  Parliament  objected,  to  leave  the  place  vacant, 
thus  letting  the  income  lapse  to  the  crown.  Parlia- 
ment threw  itself  into  the  path  of  both  king  and  prel- 
ate by  ordering  that  the  archbishop,  before  his  trial 
should  not  fill  any  benefice  but  with  the  approval  of 
both  Houses. 

The  final  disruption  coming  when  the  King  in 
person  went  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  arrest  Pym 
and  Hampden  with  the  remainder  of  the  famous  Five, 
it  was  on  an  assertion  of  rights  that  Parliament  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  277 

the  nation  stood.  The  hand  of  Charles  was  violating 
the  earlier  law  of  rights.  Even  then  Parliament  was 
loyal.  It  appealed  to  God's  all-seeing  eye  for  its  sin- 
cerity of  purpose  to  preserve  the  King  and  public 
peace.  It  placed  itself  in  the  line  of  encouraging 
piety,  praying  that  God  would  protect  the  fleeing 
King.  So  much  was  the  church  involved  in  the  na- 
tional weal  that  the  civil  war  has  been  called  the  War 
of  the  Episcopacy.  With  the  fear  which  Parliament 
had  of  the  hierarchy  was  coupled  the  dread  of  popery 
and  of  Arminianism.  It  was  a  strange  medley. 
Calvinism  pushed  hard  against  Arminianism,  fear 
against  the  papists,  patriotism  against  despotism, 
toleration  against  hierarchy.  Parliament  had  offered 
to  conclude  peace  on  condition  that  the  King  should 
accept  the  League  and  Covenant  also  abolishing  the 
hierarchy,  confirm  the  Westminster  Assembly  and 
a  settlement  of  religion  as  Parliament  should  agree. 
Further  he  was  to  abjure  the  papists,  compel  their 
children  to  be  educated  in  Protestant  schools,  insist 
on  a  better  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  better 
preaching,  and  abolish  pluralities  and  non-residence. 
This  was  much  more  than  the  headstrong  and  dis- 
tracted Charles  could  concede. 

When  all  efforts  at  settlement  failed  and  Parlia- 
ment took  the  trial  of  the  King  in  hand,  the  claim 
was  put  forth  that  he  was  guilty  of  the  bloodshed  in 
the  civil  war,  a  rough  justice  assumed  by  the  Parlia- 
ment in  place  of  that  reference  to  the  Judgment  Day 
often  deemed  best  in  momentous  issues.  As  his  execu- 
tion approached  he  showed  a  devout  reliance  upon  the 
Heavenly  Father  being  wisely  and  piously  aided  by 


278  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Joxon,  Bishop  of  London.  His  last  hours  were  spent 
in  quiet  devotion. 

The  execution  of  Charles  First  in  1649  has  sent  its 
fertile  causes  of  discussion  and  dissension  down 
through  the  history  of  England.  Roughly  divided 
into  parties  these  have  always  been  distinguished  by 
the  religious  issues  of  the  times,  conservative  or  lib- 
eral, narrow  or  broad.  A  people  with  religious  life 
so  deeply  inherent  would  surely  carry  its  faith  into 
politics,  into  home  life,  into  business  life,  everywhere. 
In  a  country,  too,  of  monarchical  principles  reaching 
back  hundreds  of  years  there  would  necessarily  be  a 
blending  of  royalty  and  faith.  Hence  sympathy  for 
the  suffering,  a  prominent  trait  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
spirit,  was  aroused  as  the  King,  attacked,  driven  from 
the  throne  and  imprisoned,  was  tried  and  beheaded. 

As  Charles  passed,  the  nation,  yet  unable  to  com- 
prehend government  by  a  Parliament  alone,  must  find 
another  ruler  and  one  stood  forth,  a  gigantic  figure  in 
man's  activities.  Oliver  Cromwell,  partly  a  product  of 
his  era  and  partly  making  that  great  era,  had  already 
before  the  King's  death  risen  to  portentous  propor- 
tions. He  had  already  shown  his  great  genius  for 
organization  in  the  renewed  world  and  in  the  Iron- 
sides, his  generalship  on  many  battlefields  and  his  ad- 
ministrative abilities  amidst  the  conflicting  elements 
of  the  times.  He  was  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  in- 
sistent, thinking,  victorious  army.  He  took  position 
among  the  faction  of  Independents. 

Standing  in  this  position  he  was  in  opposition  to 
many  things  the  Presbyterians  wanted  in  Parliament 
and  elsewhere.  Presbyterianism  was  now  the  Estab- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  279 

lished  Church.  Puritanism  was  mostly  passing  into 
Presbyterianism,  for  the  Puritan  movement  was  split 
into  many  forms  of  belief  and  practice  so  that  the 
Presbyterians  only  held  a  leading  place  among  many 
factions.  The  House  of  Commons  had  been  dom- 
inated by  them  and  the  Upper  House  gave  them  many 
sympathizers.  The  associations  of  ministers  for  mu- 
tual improvement  persisted  about  the  country  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  to  them  by  the  authorities  causing 
more  liberal  views.  Not  only  so  among  the  ministers, 
but  a  softer  spirit  was  surely  awakening  among  the 
people  at  large,  dawning  as  it  did  upon  them  that  the 
surpliced  Anglican  might  have  beneath  his  rich  vest- 
ments a  high  purpose  to  bring  forward  the  kingdom 
of  God,  that  the  austere  Puritan  could  have  a  glow- 
ing heart  under  his  somber  garments,  that  the  push- 
ing Independents  would  not  bring  down  the  whole  fab- 
ric of  religion  in  hopeless  fragments  to  the  ground, 
that  the  Baptists  even  through  deep  waters  were 
leading  men  to  a  higher  life,  and  it  was  barely  pos- 
sible that  under  the  despised  mummery  of  papist  cere- 
monies, some  of  these  people  were  pious  and  exalted 
in  their  lives. 

In  Scotland,  the  Presbyterians,  after  their  breth- 
ren in  England  had  been  crowded  from  Parliament 
and  their  cause  thrust  into  the  background  before  the 
aggressive  Independents,  were  ready  to  take  up  arms 
in  behalf  of  the  Stuart  dynasty.  But  they  com- 
pelled the  young  Charles  as  he  came  among  them  to 
lake  war  upon  the  Commonwealth,  to  sign  the  Cove- 
nant, listen  to  their  long  sermons  and  give  up  his 
excesses  much  to  his  disgust.  The  dispersal  of  his 


280  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

forces  at  the  Worcester  fight  blasted  their  hopes  and 
ruined  their  plans.  Still  the  labors  of  the  Presby- 
terian ministers  were  valuable  in  both  kingdoms, 
visiting  their  parishioners,  teaching  and  catechizing 
the  children,  thus  helping  knowledge  and  a  better 
civilization. 

Another  sect  exerting  a  deep  influence  in  religious 
matters,  the  Quakers,  arose  in  those  prolific  times. 
Like  the  adherents  of  so  many  great  religious  move- 
ments the  Quakers  point  to  a  certain  man  as  their 
originator  and  leader,  George  Fox.  He  felt  called 
by  the  spirit  of  God  to  separate  himself  from  the 
people,  so  retiring  to  the  fields  and  woods,  brooding 
over  the  religious  life,  and  taking  the  Bible  as  his 
only  book,  he  set  up  as  a  religious  teacher  in  1647 
about  Duckinfield  and  Manchester,  preaching  that 
"people  should  receive  the  inward  divine  teachings 
of  the  Lord  and  take  that  for  their  rule."  He 
formed  a  notion  to  address  the  people  with  the  pro- 
noun thou  and  thee,  would  not  remove  his  hat  to 
any  one,  nor  bow  the  knee  to  magistrates,  nor  call 
any  man  on  earth  master,  nor  use  oaths.  Insisting 
on  these  things  he  soon  became  troublesome  to  min- 
isters and  congregations,  interrupting  church  serv- 
ices, and  claiming  that  the  Bible  was  superseded  by 
the  direct  communication  of  the  Spirit.  He  and  his 
followers  would  speak  in  public  only  when  moved  to 
do  so  by  the  Spirit  when  they  would  defy  laws,  senti- 
ments and  orderly  manners  by  their  peremptory  re- 
bukes and  warnings  at  all  times  and  in  all  places. 
Fox  and  his  converts  were  mobbed,  put  into  jail  and 
otherwise  punished,  only  when  freed,  to  take  up  their 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  281 

excesses  again,  praying  for  their  persecutors,  and 
some  of  them  in  their  fanatic  spirit  even  running 
naked  through  the  streets  and  into  the  churches. 
From  some  use  of  this  word  in  the  Scriptures  they 
called  themselves  Friends,  but  by  the  rabble  were 
dubbed  Quakers,  presumably  for  shaking  in  person 
when  delivering  their  heated  messages.  In  spite  of 
their  extravagances  they  increased,  formed  congre- 
gations, built  meeting  houses  without  steeples, 
pleaded  for  toleration,  set  their  women  to  preach- 
ing, and  great  numbers  became  exemplary  in  conduct 
and  piety.  The  mob  violence  and  persecutions  were 
appalling  yet  they  received  the  abuse  and  suffering 
in  the  spirit  ascribed  to  the  Savior  as  sheep  dumb 
before  their  shearers.  By  1654*  Fox  had  organized 
a  company  of  sixty  traveling  preachers,  by  the  end 
of  the  century  there  were  sixty  thousand  Quakers 
in  England,  but  the  rapid  progress  of  the  sect  di- 
minished after  the  death  of  their  remarkable  founder. 
Along  these  years  the  hated  Catholics  were  sub- 
jected to  a  variety  of  experiences.  The  administra- 
tion of  affairs  conducted  in  mildness  during  the  Com- 
monwealth somewhat  shielded  them  as  it  did  other 
Dissenters.  The  law  banishing  them  twenty  miles 
from  London  was  not  strictly  enforced.  They  had 
been  required  to  take  an  oath  declaring  that  the 
church  of  Rome  was  not  the  true  church,  that  there 
was  no  transubstantiation,  no  purgatory,  that  no 
worship  ought  to  be  paid  to  the  host,  to  images  or 
the  crucifix,  that  salvation  was  not  merited  by  good 
works,  and  they  were  forbidden  to  go  to  the  mass. 
They  were  to  reject  the  claims  of  the  pope  to  depose 


282  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

rulers,  to  free  people  from  oaths  to  magistrates,  or 
to  any  assumption  of  authority  in  the  British  nation. 
One  refusing  to  take  such  a  comprehensive  oath  had 
two-thirds  of  his  estate  confiscated  to  the  use  of  the 
state,  but  that  those  people  could  be  loyal  to  their 
sovereign  is  shown  by  their  secreting  the  fugitive 
Prince  Charles  in  his  famous  flight  from  the  battle- 
field of  Worcester  though  great  rewards  were  set 
upon  his  head. 

Dissent  steadily  increasing  gave  despair  to  the 
Presbyterian  State  Church  as  it  had  to  the  Angli- 
can. This  despair  was  the  hope  of  men  with  hot 
hearts  and  clear  vision.  The  Baptists,  though  Crom- 
well dismissed  some  of  his  officers  for  their  beliefs, 
grew  in  numbers  and  influence,  for  one  of  their 
pamphlets  written  in  remonstrance  to  this  act  of 
the  Protector  declared  they  were  numerous  every- 
where in  towns,  provinces,  islands,  navies,  armies, 
and  even  in  the  court. 

The  Jews,  hated  about  as  intensely  as  were  the 
papists,  though  for  different  reasons,  were  now  per- 
mitted under  great  restrictions  to  settle  in  England. 
Owing  to  the  constant  appeal  of  the  Puritans  to 
the  Old  Testament,  there  may  have  been  a  bond  of 
sympathy  between  the  two  sects.  Later  the  Jews 
with  their  acute  business  ability  came  in  great  num- 
bers, mostly  Spanish  and  Portuguese  from  Amster- 
dam, to  whom  Charles  Second  put  himself  under 
great  obligation  for  money  borrowed  of  them,  and 
in  1662  they  set  up  a  synagogue  in  London. 

The  Anglicans  now  standing  as  dissenters  gave 
the  Puritan  Parliament  and  Cromwell  no  end 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  283 

of  trouble.  The  Episcopalians  stood  stoutly  by 
Charles  and  after  his  death  were  forever  intriguing 
for  the  return  of  Prince  Charles.  Lest  the  whole 
bench  of  bishops  should  die,  as  they  were  growing 
old  and  their  numbers  were  thinning,  thus  losing  to 
the  Anglican  body  the  apostolic  succession,  steps 
were  taken  to  consecrate  some  younger  men  who 
could  pass  down  the  mysterious  power  of  ordination. 
To  make  this  plan  effective  they  recognized  the  power 
of  the  absent  prince  as  king  and  had  each  province 
assemble  in  council  or  otherwise  and  consecrate  fit 
persons  for  the  vacant  sees  to  be  ratified  later  by 
the  king.  As  Charles  Second  came  to  England  the 
Anglican  service  was  at  once  set  up  in  the  palace 
of  Whitehall,  it  being  taken  for  granted  that  the 
old  Parliamentary  establishment  of  the  Anglican 
church  was  the  only  law  in  the  matter.  Everywhere 
in  churches  and  in  Parliament  the  Liturgy  was  re- 
stored. The  clergy  flocked  to  the  court  seeking  res- 
toration to  their  places  taken  from  them  during  the 
Commonwealth. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

It  was  fortunate  for  English  life  that  at  that  time 
one  of  the  grandest  men  the  earth  ever  produced 
was  the  leading  and  directing  spirit.  As  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  climbs  up  to  Cromwell's  ideals  and 
spirit,  reaching  the  full  fruit  of  his  planting,  more 
and  more  will  his  rich  legacies  be  appreciated.  His 
steps  and  those  forward  ones  taken  under  his  im- 
pulses were  only  beginnings,  yet  beginnings  that  have 
never  been  retraced,  keeping  steadily  on  in  spite 
of  any  attempts  to  block  progress  to  nobler  things. 
That  magnificent  army  of  Ironsides,  the  enlarging 
commercial  spirit  of  London,  and  the  country  full 
of  broadening  views,  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the 
common  people,  were  combining  with  other  things 
to  bring  toleration.  As  Cromwell  was  embarking  for 
Ireland  for  that  terrible  campaign  best  remembered 
by  the  appalling  massacre  of  Drogheda,  but  which 
vanquished  and  settled  the  turbulence  there  for  a 
generation,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Parliament  recom- 
mending the  removal  of  all  penal  laws  relating  to 
religion,  with  which  request  Fairfax  and  other  of- 
ficers in  council  joined.  Yet  this  was  but  a  partial 
step.  The  Catholics  were  not  to  have  its  favors. 
To  set  up  prelacy  was  not  in  its  purpose.  But  con- 
science was  to  have  more  freedom.  This  law  recom- 
mended was  passed.  Later  the  stern  laws  of  Eliza- 
beth's time  against  nonconformity  were  repealed,  but 
it  was  enacted  that  all  should  attend  divine  service 

284, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  285 

somewhere.  As  Protector  Cromwell  tried  to  recon- 
cile the  Presbyterians  and  Independents  by  having 
them  united  in  committees  for  examining  candidates 
for  the  ministry,  allowing  the  former  to  hold  their 
assemblies  and  ordain  ministers  according  to  the 
Directory.  Richard  Baxter  by  his  preaching  and 
writing  was  a  leading  spirit  in  reconciling  the  lead- 
ing sects.  In  France  and  Germany  Protestantism 
was  fighting  for  its  very  life ;  in  Holland  the  findings 
of  the  synod  of  Dort  were  rigorously  enforced ;  while 
in  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark  only  Lutheranism 
was  permitted.  And  even  in  England  there  was 
found  an  extreme  wing  of  the  Presbyterian  party 
which  regarded  toleration  but  soul  murder. 

A  strong  champion  for  toleration  was  the  able, 
Independent  divine,  Dr.  John  Owen,  whose  books, 
one  written  in  1647,  another  twenty  years  later,  had 
a  profound  influence  in  pushing  forward  public 
opinion.  With  Owen's  pen  John  Milton's  was  also 
enlisted,  these  tall  men  being  aided  by  a  host  of  lesser 
writers.  What  might  be  termed  a  school  of  writers 
arose,  among  whom  the  Latitudinarians,  Chilling- 
worth,  Tillotson,  Jeremy  Taylor  and  others  appear, 
whose  writings  and  words  deeply  moved  the  growing 
thought  of  the  time  toward  broader  views.  Not 
blind  bigotry  but  questioning  enlightenment  was  the 
issue.  To  doubt,  to  search,  to  decide,  were  the  steps 
taken  by  many  to  the  detriment  of  clericalism,  but 
for  the  good  of  the  race.  Public  sentiment  was  now 
sweeping  beyond  the  projects  of  Pym,  Hampden  and 
Vane,  and  a  large  hope  was  gaining  ground  that  the 
kingdom  of  England  might  become  the  kingdom  of 


286  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

God.  Theories  were  passing  into  action.  A  prog- 
ress hard  to  define  but  strong  and  deep  was  bring- 
ing forward  a  better  civilization,  better  laws,  nobler 
literature,  more  tolerant  religion.  The  middle  of 
the  century  saw  the  end  of  religious  wars.  Out  of 
those  years  of  turmoil  when  Puritan  excesses  of  dress, 
speech,  manners,  looks,  were  made  the  subject  of 
satire  and  buffoonery,  came  a  people  with  less  im- 
piety than  at  any  time  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation.  Profanity  was  checked,  so  were 
drunkenness  and  foulness,  bankruptcy  was  hardly 
known  for  twenty  years,  not  a  degrading  play  was 
enacted  in  London.  Sunday  was  rigidly  observed, 
the  ministry  was  active  in  preaching  and  catechizing. 

After  the  Barebones  Parliament  resigned  in  1653 
Cromwell  and  his  officers  struck  out  a  plan  consist- 
ing of  forty-two  articles  for  the  government  of  the 
three  kingdoms.  In  this  plan  it  was  declared  that 
the  Christian  religion  contained  in  the  Scriptures 
should  be  held  as  the  public  profession  of  the  realm, 
that  none  should  be  compelled  to  conform  to  public 
religion  by  penalties  or  otherwise,  that  all  professing 
faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  no  matter  how  much 
they  differed,  should  be  protected  in  their  faith  and 
in  the  exercise  of  their  religion.  But  this  declared 
toleration  did  not  extend  to  popery  or  to  prelacy. 

Few  men  have  so  profoundly  impressed  their  age 
as  did  Cromwell.  His  was  a  time  of  change  when 
the  mightiest  national  and  racial  forces  were  active 
and  the  nation  plastic,  when  one,  a  born  leader  of 
men  whose  grandeur  of  spirit  and  work  it  has  taken 
two  centuries  to  comprehend,  was  brought  to  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  287 

front  by  the  movement  of  what  has  been  rated  as 
the  blind  forces  of  progress,  but  which  now,  more 
than  ever  before  are  seen  to  have  been  greatly  the 
guidance  under  human  limitations  of  an  over-ruling 
Providence.  Cromwell  grew  up  among  a  community 
of  Puritans,  early  passed  through  a  season  of  vivid 
religious  experience,  coming  out  of  that  period  of 
spiritual  and  mental  anxiety  with  the  indwelling 
presence  of  God  recognized  by  him.  Under  this 
divine  light  he  was  ever  afterward  a  man  to  do  what 
he  deemed  to  be  his  duty.  He  was  the  man  of  whom 
Macaulay  says,  after  the  Restoration,  "Those  who 
had  fled  before  him  were  forced  to  content  themselves 
with  the  miserable  satisfaction  of  digging  up,  hang- 
ing, quartering  and  burying  the  remains  of  the 
greatest  prince  that  has  ever  ruled  England." 

In  those  years  of  unrest  steps  were  taken  for  the 
good  of  Wales.  In  1649  an  act  was  passed  to  aid 
in  giving  religious  instruction  to  that  country.  The 
people  lacked  Bibles  and  catechisms.  Many  of  the 
clergy  were  of  scandalous  character,  idle  and  igno- 
rant. The  schoolmasters  were  as  low  as  the  clerics. 
To  redress  these  grievances  was  the  purpose  of  Par- 
liament. A  commission  having  the  matter  in  hand 
soon  had  a  hundred  preachers  supplying  the  churches 
that  had  been  neglected  or  deserted  by  the  previous 
clergy.  Preaching  three  or  four  times  a  week  was 
set  up  in  all  considerable  towns,  and  three  hundred 
parishes  were  by  an  itinerant  system  furnished  with 
ministers.  Even  then  for  lack  of  clergy  laymen 
gifted  and  educated  were  set  at  work. 

The  Scots  never  liked  the  Commonwealth.     The 


288  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ill  attempts  at  reconciliation  with  the  Dissenters, 
the  insistence  of  the  Covenant,  and  that  a  Stuart 
should  be  their  king,  the  disastrous  wars  with  Crom- 
well, the  defeats  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  the  stern 
hand  of  the  Lord  Protector,  had  all  sunk  deep  into 
the  heart  of  the  Scot.  But  the  Scots  were  pious. 
The  Puritan  flame  burned  deeper  here  than  in  Eng- 
land. Scotland  wanted  religious  freedom  while  Eng- 
land strove  first  for  political  liberty.  Among  the 
Scots  noble  laymen  were  often  leaders  in  this  high 
religious  spirit.  Schools  were  set  up  whose  elevat- 
ing influence  was  perpetuated  most  nobly  through 
succeeding  generations.  Dislike  the  Commonwealth 
and  hate  Cromwell  as  they  would,  they  were  not  blind 
to  the  good  order  and  higher  religious  condition  of 
that  rule.  Remonstrant  and  Resolutioner  alike 
sought  "to  purge  and  plant  the  church."  The  Scot 
clergy  themselves,  though  calling  Cromwell  a  usurper, 
admitted  that  at  no  other  time  did  Christ's  gospel 
so  flourish  in  Scotland,  the  bitter  waters,  they  said, 
being  sweetened  by  the  Lord's  remarkable  blessing 
upon  the  labors  of  his  servants. 

When  the  army  of  the  hated  usurper  was  directing 
the  military  and  civil  affairs  of  Scotland,  "justice 
was  carefully  administered,  and  vice  was  suppressed 
and  punished,  there  was  a  great  appearance  of  de- 
votion, the  Sabbath  was  observed  with  uncommon 
strictness,  none  might  walk  the  streets  at  time  of 
service  or  frequent  public  houses,  the  evenings  of  the 
Lord's  day  were  spent  in  catechizing  their  children, 
singing  psalms  and  other  acts  of  devotion,  so  much 
that  an  acquaintance  with  the  principles  of  religion 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  289 

and  the  gift  of  prayer  increased  prodigiously  among 
the  common  people." 

The  two  great  Universities  were  found  to  be  nests 
of  discontent  and  of  plots  for  the  return  of  the 
Stuart  line.  The  vice-chancellor  of  Oxford  and  the 
heads  of  the  colleges  were  displaced,  Cromwell  was 
made  chancellor,  the  Presbyterians  gradually  being 
replaced  by  the  more  loyal  Independents.  In  the 
Universities,  as  in  the  parishes,  drunkenness,  pro- 
fanity, gaming  and  many  kinds  of  immorality  had 
found  their  place,  which  Cromwell  was  determined 
to  correct.  Preaching  was  increased  in  the  colleges, 
on  Sundays  three  or  four  sermons  were  given  in  each 
church,  on  other  days  lecturers  urged  the  claims  of 
the  gospel  so  that  in  the  universities,  as  in  Ireland, 
both  education  and  religion  were  revived.  That  cul- 
ture during  those  years  was  of  a  high  order  was 
shown  by  the  many  great  men  of  the  generation  now 
educated.  As  many  degrees  in  divinity  were  given 
as  in  all  other  professions.  On  the  Restoration  the 
expelled  heads  of  the  colleges,  the  fellows  and  others, 
sought  and  gained  their  former  places. 

The  sympathies  and  outlook  of  Cromwell  and 
England  were  at  this  time  wider  than  the  island. 
His  strong  arm  reached  across  the  channel  to  aid 
the  continental  Protestants.  The  Duke  of  Savoy,  a 
subservient  son  of  popery,  determined  that  those 
of  his  subjects  who  had  long  departed  from  the 
faith  of  Rome  should  be  compelled  to  conform  to 
the  ways  of  that  hierarchy.  To  this  end  he  sent 
troops  to  drive  out  from  their  Piedmont  valleys  those 
heretics  and  to  kill  any  that  remained.  Such  as 


290  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

escaped  the  sword  fled  to  the  mountains  suffering 
with  hunger  and  cold.  They  appealed  to  Cromwell. 
He  had  a  collection  of  money  taken  for  them  in  Eng- 
land by  which  more  than  thirty  thousand  pounds 
were  obtained,  and  in  1655  a  time  of  fasting  and 
prayer  was  appointed.  Some  of  the  Protestants  of 
other  countries  also  helped  them.  Cromwell  sent  an 
agent  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  saying  in  a  strong  mes- 
sage that  he  not  only  pitied  those  sufferers  but  that 
he  should  exert  himself  to  deliver  them.  The  pope 
and  papist  growled  but  the  persecutions  ceased.  The 
discreet  Duke  of  Savoy  heeded  the  words  of  the  stern 
Protector  and  restored  the  fugitives  to  their  homes. 
Deeming  that  the  pope  incited  this  bloody  persecu- 
tion, Cromwell  threatened  that  if  necessary  his  can- 
non should  be  heard  at  Rome.  The  Huguenots,  those 
French  Protestants,  had  raised  a  temporary  tumult 
at  Nismes,  but  though  submitting  to  the  laws  the 
French  Court  was  determined  to  ruin  them.  On 
their  appealing  to  Cromwell  his  protest  met  a  sud- 
den response  of  favor  from  Mazarin,  the  French  min- 
ister, who  was  said  to  be  more  afraid  of  Cromwell 
than  of  the  devil.  Cromwell  suggested  a  great 
council  of  all  the  Protestant  powers  of  Europe  to 
stand  opposed  to  the  Jesuits  in  their  world-wide 
purpose  of  overthrowing  the  results  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. But  the  death  of  Cromwell  stopped  what  might 
have  been  a  magnificent  instrument  for  the  defense 
of  truth  and  for  its  widening  influence. 

A  change  was  manifest  in  the  character  of  the 
literature  during  the  Commonwealth.  It  became 
purer.  The  Puritan  spirit  touched  writers  so  that 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  291 

many  totally  escaped  the  grossness  of  preceding 
times.  The  style  also  became  more  direct  and 
simple.  Cromwell  encouraged  letters.  Free- 
thinkers, royalists,  Anglican  writers,  were  protected 
in  their  literary  activities.  Joseph  Hall,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  wrote  in  a  style  so  pure  that  he  was  called 
the  Seneca  of  England.  Richard  Baxter's  "Saints' 
Everlasting  Rest,"  and  Jeremy  Taylor's  "Holy  Liv- 
ing and  Dying,"  both  written  in  this  period  are 
classics  to-day  in  the  religious  life.  The  strong 
works  of  Barrow,  of  Stillingfleet,  and  of  Tillotson 
have  also  been  read  by  pious  souls  to  this  day.  Cud- 
worth,  a  free  thinker,  wrote  his  Intellectual  System 
in  the  quiet  of  the  Protector's  toleration.  It  is  said 
that  Hobbes  writing  the  famed  Leviathan  was  safer 
with  the  Puritans  than  among  his  friends,  the  exiles 
of  the  Royalist  faction.  As  passing  time  blotted 
Dryden's  record,  he  himself  was  pure  in  life  and 
taste.  Baxter  also  later  before  the  infamous  Jeff- 
reys was  addressed  by  that  monstrosity:  "Richard, 
thou  art  an  old  knave,  thou  hast  written  books 
enough  to  load  a  cart,  and  every  book  was  as  full  of 
sedition  as  an  egg  is  full  of  meat.  By  the  grace  of 
God  I'll  look  after  thee."  So  Jeffreys  did,  cast- 
ing the  strenuous  preacher  and  virile  writer  into 
prison.  The  lighter  literature,  however,  stands  in 
muddy  contrast  to  the  nobler  product  of  the  pure 
writers.  Verses  of  love  and  romance  were  low  and 
impure.  The  coming  of  Charles  Second  opened  the 
floodgates  of  this  class  of  literature  till  plays  and 
theaters  became  so  dark  that  sober  people  left  them. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

With  the  end  of  the  Commonwealth,  militant  Puri- 
tanism may  be  said  to  close.  Even  Cromwell  com- 
mitted to  this  militancy  seems  in  his  last  days  to 
have  acknowledged  the  impossibility  to  reform  re- 
ligion by  law  and  arms.  Not  prejudice  against 
those  grander  steps  forward  can  hide  the  vast  good 
done  during  the  distinctively  Puritanic  period.  To 
bring  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  into  actual  practice 
in  men's  lives  takes  time  and  the  deep  changes  which 
come  through  enlightenment  and  willing  acceptance 
of  those  teachings.  Like  all  reformers  the  Puritans 
felt  they  had  a  distinct  call  from  Heaven  and  if  it 
is  said  they  did  their  work  imperfectly  such  is  the 
doom  of  all  human  endeavor.  That  justice  should 
be  done  on  earth  even  the  terrible  Ironsides  going 
into  battle  singing  psalms  and  having  for  their  bat- 
tle cry,  "Religion,"  or  "The  Lord  of  Hosts,"  saw 
to  be  the  purpose  of  their  pikepush  and  sword- 
play.  The  steady  character  of  the  race  was  ap- 
parent in  those  years.1' 

Prince  Charles,  an  exile  with  the  Stuart  Court  in 
France,  seeking  the  throne  from  which  the  Puritan 
movement  had  thrust  his  family,  adopted  the  Cath- 
olic worship  after  the  disastrous  campaign  in  Scot- 
land and  at  Worcester.  His  subterfuge  of  signing 
the  Scot  Covenant,  a  Stuart  duplicity,  was  now  ap- 
parent. As  the  intrigues  that  led  to  the  Restora- 
tion were  going  on  he  pledged  his  word  as  a  king 

292 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

that  no  one  should  be  disturbed  for  his  religion,  full 
liberty  being  allowed  tender  consciences.  It  trans- 
pired, however,  that  the  new  King  was  but  lightly 
interested  in  religion,  that  his  scheme  of  toleration 
meant  to  include  Catholics,  a  step  as  impossible  to 
Anglican  as  to  Dissenter.  But  Charles  really 
laughed  at  all  religion,  even  his  secret  relation  to  the 
papists  sitting  lightly  on  him. 

The  efforts  of  both  Charles  and  James  to  grant 
toleration,  by  that  to  include  the  papists,  was 
thwarted,  now  by  court  influence  under  Clarendon, 
now  through  the  determined  opposition  of  the  Angli- 
can prelates.  Even  the  Dissenters,  seeing  the  pur- 
pose of  the  King,  charily  accepted  any  of  his  con- 
cessions. Parliament  ordered  the  hangman  to  burn 
the  League  and  Covenant,  together  with  the  acts, 
ordinances,  engagements  and  other  laws  made  under 
the  Commonwealth.  The  House  of  Commons  voted 
that  no  bill  of  toleration  should  be  brought  to  them. 
Some  of  the  prelates  in  their  zeal  became  hunters  of 
the  heretics,  Bishop  Gunning,  at  one  time  finding 
the  doors  fastened  against  him,  ordered  the  constable 
to  beat  them  down  with  a  sledge.  Says  a  writer, 
"The  madness  of  the  time  prevailed  against  all  rea- 
son." Not  all  the  prelates  adopted  the  dragooning 
spirit,  some  mercifully  keeping  in  the  background. 

After  the  great  Clarendon  fell,  five  men  were  chosen 
for  a  council  of  state  with  which  Charles  purposed 
without  the  aid  of  parliaments  to  govern  the  king- 
dom. A  word  from  the  initial  letters  of  these  men's 
names  now  came  into  use,  Cabal,  and  it  is  in  use 
to-day.  Clifford,  Ashley,  Buckingham,  Arlington, 


294  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Lauderdale,  are  by  this  word  immortalized.  Clif- 
ford was  an  open  papist,  Ashley  a  concealed  one, 
Buckingham  an  atheist  and  debauchee,  Arlington  a 
deist,  and  Lauderdale  irreligious.  With  such  a 
group  of  men  Charles  was  governing  Christian  Eng- 
land. The  Convocation  not  meeting  the  wishes  of 
the  King  for  a  large  subsidy  or  gift,  deciding  in- 
stead to  have  their  benefices  taxed  like  the  temporal 
property,  fell  under  royal  displeasure,  was  seldom 
called  to  meet  and  when  called  only  met  for  the  sake 
of  form.  Attempting  to  set  up  toleration  by  royal 
edict,  since  the  Parliament  was  opposed  to  it,  Charles 
was  persuaded  by  the  hierarchy  that  only  schism  with 
countless  evils  would  come  with  this  attempt  and 
stopped  in  his  purpose  for  the  time  being  so  that 
uniformity  was  remorselessly  pressed.  The  Presby- 
terians, before  representing  the  Established  Church, 
now  found  themselves  reduced  from  the  persecutors 
to  the  persecuted.  If  ministers  cried  out  against 
the  oppressive  laws  and  the  course  of  the  prelates 
they  were  shut  up  in  the  prisons.  If  they  wrote  in 
favor  of  the  Covenant  and  of  Presbyterianism  they 
were  fined  and  bundled  into  prison  and  kept  long  in 
bonds.  Spies  and  informers  dogged  the  suspected 
ones.  The  oath  of  these  informers  thus  let  loose  was 
enough  without  other  witnesses  for  a  jury  to  convict 
a  Dissentor.  Those  having  held  cures  during  the 
Commonwealth  were  compelled  if  possible  to  refund 
the  income  of  the  benefices  during  their  occupancy. 
Whole  families,  helpless  mothers  and  children,  were 
turned  out  into  a  cold  world.  When  in  the  Com- 
monwealth time  curates  were  ejected  to  give  place 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  295 

to  these  Presbyterians  now  in  turn  rejected,  they 
were  allowed  one-fifth  of  their  former  income,  but  now 
no  such  merciful  provision  was  granted. 

The  loathsome  prisons  made  short  work  of  those 
confined  in  them.  The  loathsomeness  of  the  prisons 
in  previous  generations  was  not  yet  corrected.  A 
limited  charity  fed  some  of  these  ministers  and  their 
families.  Two  thousand  were  said  to  have  been  de- 
prived. Other  professions  were  filled  by  some  of 
these  cultured  men  while  a  few  became  chaplains  or 
teachers  in  private  families.  Their  opposition  was 
cried  out  to  be  sedition.  Oaths  were  persistently 
tendered  them.  Allegiance,  non-resistance,  repudia- 
tion of  the  covenant,  were  demanded  to  which  some 
yielded  but  many  refused.  To  the  praise  of  Charles 
Second  it  may  be  said  that  his  voluptuous  nature 
usually  recoiled  from  these  severe  ways.  When  com- 
plaint was  made  to  him  that  nonconformists  were  in- 
creasing he  responded  that  the  clergy  were  chiefly 
to  blame,  for  had  they  lived  good  lives,  gone  about 
their  parishes,  and  taken  pains  to  convince  the  non- 
conformists of  their  mistakes,  the  nation  might  have 
escaped  those  troubles. 

Parliament  was  now  moved  by  a  spirit  similar  to 
that  of  the  hierarchy.  It  declared  against  the  sedi- 
tious conventicles,  for  in  its  views  Dissenters,  being 
opposed  to  the  laws  setting  up  an  established  church, 
were  seditious,  contriving  insurrection.  The  old  law 
of  Elizabeth  against  conventicles  was  revived,  by 
which  all  persons  peremptorily  refusing  to  go  to 
church  must  suffer  banishment  and  if  they  returned 
to  England  were  condemned  to  death.  The  noncon- 


296  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

formist  ministers  usually  tried  to  keep  within  the 
law,  preaching  only  to  families  to  which  no  more 
than  four  besides  were  allowed  to  come.  If  people 
in  adjoining  houses  could  hear  this  preaching  it  was 
considered  against  the  law.  Under  these  enormities 
preaching  was  broken  up,  houses  were  ransacked, 
goods  confiscated,  cattle  driven  away  and  people  left 
to  languish  in  prison  for  months  without  trial. 
Even  troops  were  used  to  hunt  down  these  violators 
of  law.  Further,  a  nonconformist  minister  coming 
within  five  miles  of  any  city  or  borough  sending  a 
member  to  Parliament,  or  within  the  same  distance 
of  any  place  where  the  minister  had  preached  before, 
should  be  fined  forty  pounds. 

In  1678  the  Test  Act  was  passed,  an  act  aimed  at 
the  papists.  By  it  all  Catholics  save  James,  the 
Duke  of  York,  were  excluded  from  seats  in  Parlia- 
ment. For  his  papist  faith  bills  were  brought  into 
Parliament  several  times  to  exclude  the  Duke  from 
the  succession,  but  through  court  influence  they 
failed,  though  the  people  feared  him  for  his  church 
relations.  The  Test  Act  enraged  Charles  whose 
heart,  though  secretly,  was  with  the  Catholics.  Be- 
cause the  Dissenters  could  not  join  the  King  in  his 
hot  opposition  to  the  Test  Act  they  were  made  to 
smart.  Even  a  Catholic  writer  not  ignorant  of 
Rome's  persecutions  declared  that  these  were  sur- 
passed by  the  persecutions  of  the  hierarchy  of  Eng- 
land. The  restored  prelates,  mostly  old  men,  neg- 
lected their  duties,  falling  back  on  their  prerogatives, 
Raising  large  sums  of  money  on  their  restored  prop- 
erties they  freely  scattered  it  to  secure  adherents  by 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  297 

dignities  and  places.  Many  of  the  young  prelates 
were  superficial  prigs,  being  poor  apologies  for  minis- 
ters to  the  people.  Luxury  came  in  like  a  flood. 
Pepys  says,  "The  clergy  was  so  high  that  all  the 
people  I  do  see  protest  against  their  practices."  A 
flood  of  evil  was  sweeping  over  England.  Such 
people  as  did  not  drink,  or  swear  or  break  the  Sab- 
bath were  sneered  at  as  Puritans,  fanatics,  republi- 
cans. In  the  plays  to  which  throngs  crowded,  re- 
ligion was  mentioned  with  contempt. 

But  in  the  midst  of  the  grossness  and  frivolity  a 
new  class  of  clerics  arose  to  their  duties.  So  liberal 
were  those  men  that  they  were  classed  as  Latitudi- 
narians.  Prominent  among  them  were  the  Cam- 
bridge men,  Whichcoat,  Cudworth,  Wilkins,  More, 
Worthington.  They  claimed  that  Christianity  was 
given  of  Heaven  to  soften  and  ennoble  man  and  to 
lift  him  away  from  narrowness,  partisanship,  super- 
stition and  conceits.  They  successfully  impressed 
their  broader  views  upon  people  with  whom  they 
came  in  contact,  succeeding  in  it  so  that  finally  bet- 
ter prelates  came  into  place  as  Stillingfleet,  Tillot- 
son,  Patrick  and  others.  They  were  opposed  alike 
to  the  cant  of  Puritans  and  to  the  profligacy  of  the 
Reformation.  This  advancing  school  brought  in  a 
new  way  of  preaching.  The  style  before  had  been 
pedantic  with  many  quotations  from  the  early 
Fathers  and  other  ancient  writers,  discussing  at 
length  every  word  of  the  text  from  a  concordance 
with  only  a  short  application.  This  new  school 
preached  "clear,  plain  and  short."  In  this  they 
followed  the  lectures  as  the  despised  dissenting  min- 


298  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

isters  were  termed.  The  people  at  large  by  this 
change  were  greatly  aided  in  comprehending  the 
Bible  and  their  religious  duties.  Through  all  this 
time  the  influence  of  Hobbes  was  vast  for  freedom. 
Great  preachers,  Isaac  Barren,  Robert  South,  Still- 
ingfleet  and  others,  had  a  rich,  elevating  power. 

Before  the  Commonwealth  a  class  of  preachers 
called  lecturers  arose,  attaining  their  duties  under 
great  difficulties.  During  that  period  they  increased 
in  numbers  and  influence  and  though  opposed  by  the 
Establishment  continued  their  activities  afterwards. 
Most  of  these  men  were  dissenting  ministers  ejected 
from  their  livings  when  the  ecclesiastical  weather- 
cock was  turned  about.  Some  were  men  never  fully 
inducted  into  the  cleric  ranks  by  any  form  of  ordina- 
tion, but  educated,  apt  to  teach,  and  successful  in- 
structors of  the  Bible.  They  were  employed  by 
private  persons  or  by  corporations,  or  by  other 
means  to  preach  at  odd  times  and  in  places  not 
reached  by  the  church  authorities.  They  were  under 
legal  obligation  to  read  the  ritual  but  mostly  evaded 
it.  Being  spirited,  attractive  preachers  they  drew 
crowds  to  hear  them,  causing  complaints  from  the 
regular  clergy.  Most  of  the  poor  people  unless  en- 
thusiasts clung  to  the  Established  Church  as  did  the 
nobility,  but  men  of  intensely  religious  life  went 
largely  with  the  Dissenters.  Both  systems  produced 
men  and  women  of  noble  character,  of  pure  lives  and 
devoted  labor,  people  usually  passed  over  by  histo- 
rians yet  of  whom  now  and  then  a  passing  glimpse 
can  be  obtained  in  contemporary  writings. 

'Alongside  this  personal  devoutness  was  the  sym- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  299 

pathy  natural  toward  suffering  shown  at  the  time 
of  the  Plague  when  the  King  subscribed  a  thousand 
pounds  a  week  for  the  sufferers,  followed  in  this 
beneficence  by  the  Queen,  the  Court,  the  prelates, 
and  by  the  city  government.  The  warning  sign  of 
the  Plague  placed  upon  the  doors  was  a  large  red 
cross  and  the  prayer,  "Lord,  have  mercy  on  us  all." 
At  this  time  superstition  ran  wild,  people  declaring 
that  ghosts  were  seen  at  the  overloaded  cemeteries, 
portents  glared  in  the  sky,  fanatics  cried  out  the 
judgments  of  God.  Ministers,  both  Anglican  and 
Dissenters,  forgetting  for  the  time  their  animosities, 
preached  in  the  churches  made  common  by  the  awful 
visitation  when  thousands  were  dying  daily,  yet  the 
Court  and  the  Prime  Minister  persecuted  the  faith- 
ful Dissenters  for  that  very  course  of  mercy  and 
devotion.  In  1677  the  old  law  for  burning  heretics, 
coming  down  from  a  date  as  early  as  1400,  was  re- 
pealed. 

The  terrible  whippings  before  inflicted  were 
stopped  after  the  Restoration.  The  usual  results  of 
persecution  were  everywhere  in  evidence.  Dissenters 
were  relentlessly  deprived  of  their  churches,  were 
cited  before  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  their  meeting 
places  had  to  be  changed  secretly,  disguises  had  to 
be  adopted  by  their  preachers,  some  of  the  people 
in  very  despair  attended  the  parish  churches.  Bax- 
ter was  cast  into  prison  and  many  fled  oversea.  The 
abortive  attempt  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  to  secure 
the  crown  was  based  partly  upon  religious  grounds, 
since  he  claimed  to  take  up  arms  in  defense  of 
Protestantism  when  James  Second,  after  the  death 


300  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  Charles  Second,  ascended  the  throne.  Of  the  six 
hundred  executed  under  the  atrocious  Jeffreys  at 
the  west,  most  of  those  who  had  taken  up  arms  with 
Monmouth  were  Dissenters.  Many  of  these  people 
not  killed  under  Jeffrey's  mandate  were  sold  into 
slavery  to  the  West  Indies,  their  passage  there  rival- 
ing in  suffering  and  mortality  the  middle  passage 
of  the  African  negroes.  In  this  nefarious  traffic 
of  their  English  brethren  some  of  the  courtiers  were 
engaged. 

In  the  time  of  James  Second  the  Dissenters  could 
be  classified  in  four  main  sects,  the  Presbyterians, 
Independents,  Baptists  and  Quakers.  The  Presby- 
terians and  Independents  were  greatly  weakened  in 
the  part  they  played  in  the  perished  Commonwealth. 
The  Baptists  "were  generally  men  of  virtue  and  of 
universal  charity,"  while  the  Quakers  though 
marked  with  peculiarities  of  dress  and  speech  had  a 
powerful  friend  at  Court,  William  Penn.  King  James, 
having  trouble  with  his  parliaments,  determined  to 
rule  without  them,  using  his  Council  as  advisers  and 
issuing  declarations  designed  to  have  force  equal  to 
the  acts  of  Parliament.  To  aid  in  accomplishing  this 
end  he  decided  to  relieve  Dissenters,  both  Protestant 
and  Catholics  from  the  restrictions  under  which  they 
were  held  by  preceding  laws.  In  place  of  the  bloody 
Jeffreys,  Hubert  was  made  Chief  Justice  who  with 
a  different  hand  went  over  the  country  seared  by 
the  passage  of  Jeffreys,  even  encouraging  con- 
venticles of  Dissenters. 

A  contemporary  writer,  Delaune,  claimed  that 
eight  thousand  Dissenters  had  died  in  prison  during 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  301 

the  reign  of  Charles  Second,  while  losses  in  their 
business,  trades,  and  fines  exacted  of  them  arose  to 
millions  of  pounds.  It  was  claimed  that  seventy 
thousand  families  had  been  ruined.  As  before,  Hol- 
land and  the  American  colonies  were  enriched  by 
such  noble  patriots.  The  Dissenters  received  the 
Indulgence  offered  by  James  with  such  coldness  that 
it  enraged  him  so  that  in  a  recoil  of  spirit 
he  more  than  ever  had  the  old  laws  against 
them  enforced.  In  some  ways  they  used  the  free- 
dom granted  by  the  Indulgence,  for  the  Presbyte- 
rians and  the  Independents  in  London  set  up  lectures 
in  Pinner's  Hall,  this  invaluable  course  being  con- 
tinued until  1695.  At  that  date  the  two  sects  sep- 
arated, the  Presbyterians  starting  a  similar  course  by 
themselves  at  Salter's  Hall,  both  courses  being  kept 
up  many  years.  In  politics  the  Dissenters  joined 
the  low  church  party,  gaining  ground  in  the  par- 
liamentary elections  where  they  were  strenuous  for 
Protestantism,  since  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence 
had  given  them  rights  to  liberty  and  to  hold  offices 
of  trust  and  profit  which  had  been  denied  them  be- 
fore. Imprisoned  Quakers  by  the  hundreds  and 
Catholics  by  the  thousands  were  now  set  free.  The 
colonies  of  New  England  where  much  restriction  had 
been  attempted  were  glad  of  the  Indulgence  so  that 
Dr.  Increase  Mather  went  to  England  to  thank  the 
king  for  it  though  the  colonial  rulers  opposed  the 
step. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  Second  the  Anglican 
Church  began  to  find  a  cleavage  in  its  ranks  separat- 
ing it  into  High  Church  and  Low  Church,  a  division 


302  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

marking  it  to  the  present  day.  High  Church  clergy 
were  more  ritualistic,  favored  royal  prerogative, 
were  mostly  adherents  of  the  fugitive  Stuarts, 
and  were  unfavorable  to  toleration.  In  politics  this 
party  became  known  as  Tories,  a  term  of  reproach 
from  a  low  Irish  word.  On  the  other  hand  the  Low 
Church  were  moderate  in  ritualism,  favored  tolera- 
tion until  they  were  termed  Latitudinarians,  were  bit- 
ter against  popery,  in  politics  were  called  Whigs, 
also  a  term  of  reproach  borrowed  from  a  Scotch 
word.  As  James  issued  his  Declaration  of  Indul- 
gence the  prelates  refused  to  read  it  or  to  order  their 
ministers  to  do  so,  the  doctrine  long  preached  by 
them  by  non-resistance  to  the  royal  word  or  will  dis- 
sipating like  a  puff  of  smoke. 

Art,  during  the  later  Stuart  period  before  under 
the  ban  of  the  Puritan  spirit  was  to  a  degree  revived. 
Sir  Christopher  Wren's  genius  found  full  scope, 
touching  with  incomparable  glory  the  productions 
of  that  period.  The  churches,  chapels,  oratorios, 
and  other  buildings  bear  the  stamp  of  his  genius, 
while  Wren's  true  monument  surrounds  the  visitor 
as  he  stands  wondering  in  the  glory  of  St.  Paul's 
cathedral.  Along  with  him  was  Gibbons,  the  ablest 
sculptor  of  the  time  whose  natural  aptitude  for  art 
was  carefully  fostered  by  those  in  high  places,  his 
works  being  mostly  of  a  religious  character,  like  his 
statues  of  John,  Paul  and  Peter.  Frescoes  of 
spiritual  import  were  placed  in  the  churches  and 
chapels  as  well  as  in  the  palace  of  Whitehall. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

England  had  become  heartily  sick  of  the  Stuarts. 
As  the  hopes  of  James  arose  on  the  prospect  of  an 
heir  by  his  Portuguese  queen  he  issued  another  dec- 
laration of  indulgence  broader  than  previous  ones, 
being  designed  to  cover  papists  in  office  as  well  as 
other  things  unconstitutional.  This  royal  declara- 
tion he  ordered  first  to  be  read  in  the  London 
churches  and  afterwards  in  the  churches  outside  of 
the  city.  A  few  of  the  clergy  fell  in  with  this  man- 
date but  most  of  them  refused  so  it  was  read  in  but 
seven  of  the  London  churches.  Some  of  the  prel- 
ates met  in  the  Lambeth  Palace  and  issued  a  defense 
of  their  course,  saying  they  deemed  the  declaration 
a  dispensing  power.  The  seven  prelates  who  sprang 
to  the  defense  of  rights  were  Archbishop  Sancroft, 
Lloyde  of  St.  Asaph,  Ken  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
Turner  of  Ely,  Lake  of  Chichester,  White  of 
Peterborough,  and  Trelawny  of  Bristol.  When 
these  men  were  summoned  by  the  angry  James 
they  persisted  in  their  defiance  and  were  sent  to  the 
Tower.  On  all  their  route  to  that  prison  a  vast 
multitude  gave  the  bishops  the  most  intense  assur- 
ance of  good  will  and  sympathy.  James  saw  his  mis- 
take but  his  papist  counselors  urged  him  to  press  the 
issue. 

It  was  the  crisis.  An  address  was  sent  to  William, 
the  Stadtholder  of  Holland,  inviting  him  and  Mary, 
his  wife,  the  Protestant  daughter  of  James,  to  come 

303 


304  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

and  assume  the  government  of  England.  This  in- 
vitation was  signed  by  lords  spiritual,  lords  temporal 
and  many  others.  For  some  time  William  and  Mary 
had  been  looking  for  such  a  call  and  it  was  not  now 
unwelcome.  Soon  a  great  fleet  and  many  battalions 
of  veteran  troops  were  prepared  for  crossing  to  Eng- 
land. James  was  in  an  ecstasy  of  fear.  In  his  ter- 
ror he  offered  to  call  a  parliament  and  undo  his  arbi- 
trary enactments  but  the  people  would  trust  little 
to  these  enforced  concessions.  His  wife  and  child 
left  for  France  and  soon  James  himself,  learning  that 
the  army,  the  aristocracy,  the  Universities,  and  al- 
most the  whole  nation  had  gone  to  William,  also  fled 
in  his  wife's  footsteps. 

William  issued  a  proclamation  saying  he  came  to 
grant  liberty  in  all  matters  civil  and  religious,  that 
he  would  call  a  lawful  parliament  to  effect  agreement 
between  the  Established  Church  and  Dissenters,  and 
that  for  the  present  all  should  have  freedom  of  con- 
science. William  was  a  great  statesman.  He 
rapidly  gained  the  confidence  of  most  of  the  nation, 
oaths  of  allegiance  being  taken  by  men  of  all  classes. 
Mary,  staying  for  the  time  being  in  Holland,  prayed 
continuously  for  the  safe  passage  of  the  fleet  and 
when  it  was  finally  enclosed  in  the  harbor  and  the 
landing  effected,  William,  grasping  Burnet  by  the 
hand,  eagerly  asked  that  prelate  if  he  did  not  now 
believe  in  predestination,  but  that  Latitudinarian 
divine,  also  tainted  with  Arminianism,  replied  with 
courtly  grace  that  he  should  never  forget  the  prov- 
idences of  God  on  this  occasion. 

Parliament,   planning   toleration,   passed   an   act 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  305 

to  this  end  without  repealing  however  the  hateful 
Test  Act  and  the  Corporation  Act.  A  further  step 
was  urged  so  to  modify  the  ritual  and  rites  of  the 
church  services  that  Dissenters  could  be  compre- 
hended in  the  fellowship  of  the  Establishment.  The 
Anglican  divines  in  the  committee  strenuously  op- 
posed any  change  in  the  liturgy.  A  bitter  feeling 
against  William  arose  among  the  ritualists  since  they 
claimed  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  Episcopacy. 
The  effort  to  make  the  Christians  of  England  into 
one  sect  failed.  Still,  the  act  of  toleration  relieved 
the  situation  so  that  absentees  from  the  Anglican 
services  were  not  oppressed.  Unitarians  and  papists, 
however,  were  not  granted  these  favors  extended  to 
other  sects.  'But  in  some  of  the  colonies  growing  up 
across  the  Atlantic,  Rhode  Island  settled  by  the 
Baptists  and  Pennsylvania  by  the  Quakers,  these 
people  were  offered  full  religious  freedom,  prophecy 
of  the  complete  freedom  of  the  church  life  later  to  be 
obtained  in  United  States.  So  dissatisfied  were  Will- 
iam and  Mary  with  the  spirit  of  the  Convocation 
that  during  their  reign  they  did  not  call  that  body 
together  again  nor  was  it  called  again  to  do  business 
for  a  century. 

An  inconsiderable  part  of  the  Anglican  clergy 
would  not  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  hence  were 
called  Non jurors.  These  clerics  still  considered 
James  the  King  of  England.  Eight  prelates  and 
about  four  hundred  curates  held  to  this  position. 
They  formed  a  nest  of  conspirators  for  the  return 
of  James,  continually  intriguing  by  correspondence 
and  by  messengers  for  this  purpose.  Most  promi- 


306  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

nent  of  the  Nonjurors  was  Bancroft,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  graceful,  genial  Ken,  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells,  whose  hymns  have  enriched  the 
books  of  song  for  the  church  ever  since  his  day. 
Consistent  time  was  allowed  the  Nonjurors  to  decide 
on  what  course  they  would  eventually  take,  and  such 
as  were  persistent  against  the  law  were  finally  dis- 
placed, leaving  them  discontented  and  a  constant 
source  of  annoyance.  Some  became  teachers,  a  few  re- 
entered  the  regular  ranks,  others  were  aimless  idlers 
living  on  the  bounty  of  a  pitying  people,  and  others 
passed  to  the  Catholics.  Such  prelates  among  them 
who  yet  held  their  places  refused  to  ordain  ministers 
because  the  names  of  William  and  Mary  were  in  the 
liturgy.  When  a  group  of  these  disturbers,  eighteen 
in  number,  were  transported  from  Scotland  to  Vir- 
ginia, William  distributed  two  hundred  pounds 
among  them. 

William,  a  Dutchman,  but  slightly  understanding 
the  English  language  and  the  peculiar  qualities  of 
the  English  people,  was  set  down  to  many  difficult 
tasks.  He  was  sensitive,  self-reliant,  farseeing, 
brave,  a  great  statesman,  frequently  chafing  at  the 
narrow,  insular  views  of  his  parliaments  and  council- 
ors, jealous  of  his  Dutch  troops,  his  Dutch  favor- 
ites, and  of  his  own  taciturnity.  Although  a  Pres- 
byterian of  the  continental  type  with  full  belief  in 
predestination  he  was  tolerant  of  all  forms  of  re- 
ligious worship  and  insisted  that  such  freedom  of  con- 
science should  be  allowed  to  all  as  he  had  been  used 
to  at  home. 

When  the  Scots  proffered  him  the  crown  of  their 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  307 

land  and  the  coronation  oaths  were  tendered  him, 
one  requirement  was  to  root  out  all  heretics  and  all 
enemies  of  the  worship  of  the  true  God.  Knowing 
that  this  might  be  construed  by  the  intense  Scots  as 
meaning  all  who  were  not  Covenanters,  the  King 
stopped,  declaring  that  he  would  not  become  a  per- 
secutor, when  the  Scot  commissioners  replied  that 
neither  the  words  of  the  oath  nor  the  laws  of  Scot- 
land laid  any  such  obligation  on  him,  on  which  as- 
surance he  took  the  oath.  He  was  said  to  have 
three  objects  in  view  in  England  touching  church 
affairs,  toleration  of  Dissenters,  some  plan  of  com- 
prehension, and  the  opening  of  all  offices  to  all 
Protestants.  He  attained  the  first  but  in  the  other 
two  England  was  behind  the  great  Dutch  statesman. 
In  his  own  time  he  was  thus  described: 

"Great  without  pride,  true  to  his  word,  wise  in  his 
deliberations,  secret  in  his  councils,  generous  in  his  at- 
tempts, undaunted  in  dangers,  valiant  without  cruelty, 
and  unchanged  under  all  events;  loves  justice  with  mod- 
eration, government  without  tyranny,  religion  without 
persecution,  and  devotion  without  hypocrisy." 

In  all  his  inner  life  he  was  greatly  aided  by  Mary 
who  like  him  was  a  devoted  Christian  full  of  charities 
and  kindness,  a  steadfast  patriot  and  an  affectionate 
wife. 

The  far-reaching  Bill  of  Rights  enlarged  from  the 
Declaration  of  Rights  made  when  William  First  came 
to  England,  was  the  natural  reaction  against  the 
Stuart  domination.  One  point  was  that  any  one  hold- 
ing communion  with  the  Church  of  Rome  or  marrying 


308  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

a  papist  should  be  excluded  from  the  crown  and  be 
incapable  of  inheriting  it.  In  1700  in  the  Act  of 
Settlement  this  bill  was  enlarged  by  the  law  that 
whoever  came  to  the  crown  must  join  in  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England.  In  the  deeper  sense 
of  rights  growing  up  among  the  people  the  aristoc- 
racy learned  that  it  could  not  hope  for  complete 
immunity  from  obligation  to  the  people.  The  long 
claim  of  divine  right  of  kingship  was  set  aside  when 
by  vote  of  Parliament  William  and  Mary  were  elected 
to  the  throne. 

Along  with  these  changes  for  good  was  most  as- 
tounding and  graceless  corruption  in  high  places 
and  in  Parliament.  Bribery  was  so  common  that 
ministers  to  have  a  bill  passed  were  compelled  to 
buy  votes  in  the  Parliament  by  the  wholesale.  With 
such  precious  statesmen  William  had  to  do,  but  his 
sickened  heart  rebelled  against  the  situation.  But 
strive  as  he  might  against  the  custom  coming  down 
from  past  generations  he  could  not  escape.  Bishop 
Burnet  in  his  honest  indignation  remonstrated  with 
the  King  for  giving  way  to  the  custom,  when  William 
is  said  to  have  replied :  "Nobody  hates  bribery  worse 
than  I.  But  I  have  to  do  with  a  set  of  men  who  have 
to  be  managed  in  this  vile  way  or  not  at  all.  I  mast 
strain  a  point  or  the  country  is  lost."  The  struggle 
for  supremacy  between  the  great  political  parties, 
the  Whigs  and  the  Tories,  was  of  a  nature  to  be 
expected  in  such  a  state  of  high  life.  To  bribery 
were  added  lying,  violence,  deceit  and  passionate 
grasping  for  income  and  place. 

In  spite  of  these  distressing  phases  of  life  there 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  309 

was  honesty  among  business  men,  increasing  wealth 
was  bringing  its  aid  to  better  things,  virtues  were 
dominating  in  many  characters  and  in  many  homes, 
letters  were  becoming  purer  and  awakening  con- 
science was  relegating  bribery  and  corruption,  vio- 
lence and  robbery,  to  their  place  outside  the  pale  of 
human  progress.  The  persecuting  times  of  the  im- 
mediate past  were  sure  to  bring  out  grand  char- 
acters, like  Bunyan,  George  Fox  and  Barclay,  with 
statesmen  like  John  Temple  and  Bishop  Burnet,  men 
tall,  sun  lighted  men,  whose  influence  was  on  firm 
foundations,  and  who  were  building  for  coming  gen- 
erations. Grand  men  sat  in  episcopal  palaces,  and 
as  noble  ones  preached  in  dissenting  chapels,  still 
bearing  the  reddened  scars  of  dungeon  and  pillory. 
These  men  were  preparing  the  realm  for  toleration. 
The  vain  hope  was  held  by  some  of  the  Establishment 
that  if  the  stout  teachers  of  dissent  and  their  fol- 
lowers could  not  now  be  brought  to  conformity,  at 
least  the  children  of  coming  generations  could  be  so 
enclosed  in  the  fold.  Later,  education  laws  to  this 
end  were  enacted. 

But  notwithstanding  this  increased  efficiency  a 
spirit  of  scepticism  was  growing  up  in  the  country 
coupled  with  scoffing  at  religion.  It  may  scarcely 
be  doubted  but  that  this  was  a  healthy  recoil  from 
the  imperfect  Christianity  when  reached  in  England. 
A  knowledge  of  what  that  religion  really  was  in- 
creased by  reading  the  Bible  and  by  other  means,  the 
serious,  enlightened  intellect  could  not  fail  to  note 
important  discrepancies.  Christianity  and  practice 
did  not  agree.  Such  scepticism  was  a  good  sign. 


310  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

It  was  leading  to  better  things.  Along  with  this 
trend  was  one  toward  Unitarian  beliefs,  though  these 
people,  as  also  the  Catholics  were  excepted  in  the 
Bill  of  Rights.  Unitarian  writers  of  different  shades 
of  belief  known  as  Socinians,  Arians,  and  others, 
were  active  with  the  press,  issuing  pamphlets  in  ex- 
planation and  in  defense  of  their  opinions.  A  tract 
of  this  kind  being  sent  by  the  penny  post  to  some 
of  the  lords,  was  ordered  to  be  burnt  by  the  hang- 
man. 

Matters  bearing  on  the  religious  life  were  multiply- 
ing so  that  their  view  is  most  complex.  During  the 
gigantic  struggle  with  France,  when  that  country 
engaged  alone  in  an  aggressive  war  upon  almost  all 
Europe,  the  patriotic  spirit  of  England  took  varied 
forms.  Mutual  forbearance  of  debtors  and  credi- 
tors, of  soldiers  and  people,  was  such  along  with  other 
cases  of  like  import  that  thoughtful  persons  saw  "the 
interference  of  a  gracious  Providence"  protecting 
and  guiding  England.  Many  were  the  days  of  fast- 
ing and  prayer.  Once  a  month  on  a  Wednesday  the 
nation  almost  unanimously  bent  its  head  in  prayer 
and  penitence.  Scotland  did  the  same.  On  the 
other  hand  the  French  refugees  prayed  and  fasted 
for  their  suffering  compatriots  on  the  continent. 
England  saw  its  own  independence  at  stake,  for 
France  seemed  aiming  at  world  supremacy  along  with 
its  championship  of  Catholicism.  Love  of  freedom 
and  hope  in  Christianity  were  great  passions  domi- 
nating England  at  that  period.  With  such  a  high 
tension  of  feeling  it  is  no  wonder  that  England  saw 
special  providences  in  the  escape  of  William  from 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  311 

assassination  and  battle  danger,  himself  the  great 
organizer  of  opposition  to  France.  England  and 
Protestantism  were  fortunate  in  having  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  the  wise  statesman  and  brave  general  at 
the  head  of  the  powers  combined  against  French  pre- 
tensions. Again  and  again  it  seemed  that  a  pro- 
tecting hand  saved  him  from  death.  Then  the  na- 
tion would  break  forth  into  thanksgiving. 

Even  the  Nonjurors  mostly  seemed  thankful  that 
he  whom  they  deemed  their  rightful  sovereign,  James 
Stuart,  was  not  brought  back  by  force  of  arms. 

The  private  benefactions  of  philanthropists,  a 
most  exalted  glory  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  as  it 
has  spread  over  the  continents,  had  pleasing  in- 
stances along  this  time.  Fernin,  a  rich  Londoner, 
was  full  of  charities  both  private  and  public,  aiding 
the  poor,  opening  schools,  founding  hospitals,  and 
obtaining  money  from  other  wealthy  persons  to  aid 
in  these  things.  Yet  this  man  was  one  of  the  pro- 
scribed Unitarians.  Charities  in  many  forms  in- 
creased, the  Earl  of  Essex  built  up  a  rich  library, 
others  were  set  up  in  the  colony  of  Maryland.  Two 
noble  societies  that  have  sent  down  the  generations 
a  flood  of  benefits  were  founded  now,  that  for  the 
Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  and  the  other  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts. 
The  Greenwich  Hospital  projected  by  Queen  Mary 
was  after  her  death  a  special  concern  of  William 
who  carried  it  forward  as  her  monument,  so  that  in 
1705,  munificently  furnished,  it  began  to  receive  pa- 
tients. Court  and  hierarchy  supported  it.  Science 
bringing  its  rich  benefits  to  man  was  fostered  by 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

Bishop  Burnet  who  saw,  he  said,  that  it  was  joined 
to  religion.  With  him  were  its  great  promoters, 
Bacon,  Boyle,  Locke,  and  others.  Schools  were 
founded  by  private  means,  one  in  Grand  Lane,  South- 
wark,  by  Poulton,  where  poor  children  could  be 
educated  free  of  cost.  This  impelled  others  to  like 
deeds.  Schools  arose  in  which  Protestantism  was 
taught  along  with  book  studies. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

England  at  that  time  did  not  see  the  great  height 
of  its  Dutch  king.  One  instance  of  his  spirit  of 
toleration  and  sympathy  was  in  his  Act  of  Grace,  of 
which  Macaulay  says:  "The  nation  owed  to  William 
alone  and  it  is  one  of  his  noblest  and  purest  titles 
of  renown."  Parliament,  smarting  under  abuses  of 
previous  reigns,  refused  to  pass  an  Indemnity  Bill 
to  give  ease  to  the  political  situation.  But  William 
issued  an  Act  of  Grace  unanimously  accepted  by 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  granting  amnesty  to 
most  of  the  political  offenders  of  the  past,  save  the 
living  members  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  that 
condemned  Charles  First  to  the  scaffold.  He  was 
steadily  introducing  a  kindlier  spirit  into  all  English 
life.  After  his  victory  in  Ireland  William  rode  the 
next  Sunday  to  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  to  return 
thanks  for  the  victory. 

To  the  injury  of  the  island  and  the  people  tens 
of  thousands  of  soldiers  soon  passed  to  France,  mostly 
to  be  found  in  arms  against  William  in  his  con- 
tinental campaigns.  He  so  comprehended  the  loy- 
alty and  sacrifice  made  by  the  Dissenters  of  Antrim 
and  Down  that  he  gave  twelve  hundred  pounds  to 
their  ministers  to  compensate  their  losses.  Ever 
since  that  time  this  bounty  has  been  perpetuated  by 
Parliament  to  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster. 

The  influence  of  Mary  upon  the  women  of  her 
time,  whether  as  Princess  or  as  Queen,  was  most 

313 


314  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

noble  and  elevating  to  the  sex.  Nor  had  England 
been  without  those  in  high  life  and  low  alike  who 
were  models  of  industry,  charity,  piety  and  devotion. 

When  the  foul  court  of  James  existed  some 
women  of  it  were  yet  devout  and  modest,  Lady  Rachel 
Russell,  Lady  Packingham,  Mrs.  Godolphin,  being 
foremost  among  those  bright  examples.  The  last 
one  is  said  to  have  become  "more  and  more  a  re- 
ligious, discreet,  and  admirable  creature,  beloved 
by  all." 

The  press,  that  mighty  engine  for  man's  rights, 
was  set  free  in  this  period.  In  1685  the  license  by 
which  it  was  practically  muzzled  had  been  renewed 
for  five  years,  and  the  Parliament  of  1690  voted  that 
it  be  put  on  again  for  only  two  years.  That  was 
the  end.  A  bill  was  brought  in  during  1697  to  renew 
the  gag,  but  was  lost  in  the  Commons  by  two  hundred 
to  sixteen.  This  momentous  achievement  was  one 
of  those  steps  forward,  little  noted  at  the  time,  that 
have  now  and  then  come  to  the  race  like  the  influence 
of  the  atmosphere,  unnoticed  but  of  vastest  worth. 
Under  the  repressive  system  men  who  should  have 
been  free  to  tell  their  thoughts  would  stoop  to 
duplicity  and  concealment.  England  alone  among 
the  nations  learned  this  fact,  the  benefits  of  which 
the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  reaped  for  two  hun- 
dred years. 

The  royal  lines  of  Stuart,  Orange  and  Hanover 
used  the  press  as  well  as  Anglican  and  Unitarian, 
but  in  the  contention  was  progress.  Dean  Swift 
and  Bolingbroke  became  tribunes  of  the  people. 
Sir  William  Williams,  Speaker  of  Commons  in  1689> 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  315 

printed  proceedings  of  that  house,  the  King's  Bench 
fining  him  ten  thousand  pounds,  but  the  Commons, 
standing  by  their  Speaker,  voted  that  the  act  of 
that  court  was  illegal  and  ordered  a  bill  to  reverse  the 
court  decision.  This  act  greatly  aided  and  directed 
the  Commons  in  their  later  discussions. 

Upon  the  failure  of  the  plan  of  comprehension,  the 
Dissenters  under  their  enlarged  liberties  pushed  for- 
ward with  new  energy.  That  energy  was  such  that 
the  Establishment  began  fearing  them  almost  as 
much  as  the  papists.  At  this  time  the  Independents, 
Baptists  and  Quakers,  had  become  strong  and  in- 
fluential. None  of  these  sects  could  accept  as  Scrip- 
tural the  government  of  churches  by  any  hierarchal 
plan.  All  of  them  deemed  the  congregation  itself  the 
supreme  governing  power.  In  this  principle  was 
democracy.  With  the  hierarchy  was  royalty.  In 
religion  men  would  be  free.  Dissent  was  not  yet 
fully  attained,  but  was  greatly  liberated  from  former 
restrictions. 

Along  with  Protestant  Dissenters  stood  the  Catho- 
lics also  as  Dissenters  under  the  laws.  It  is  prob- 
able that  William  promised  to  the  continental  Catho- 
lic powers  aiding  him  against  France  some  favors  to 
the  English  Catholics,  but  the  fear  of  them  in  Eng- 
land amounted  almost  to  a  frenzy.  That  the  pope 
in  opposition  to  France  was  kindly  disposed  toward 
William,  and  that  the  latter  had  a  party  in  the 
pontifical  court  no  doubt  made  Englishmen  more 
than  ever  watchful  of  Romish  plots.  So  sharp  was 
this  spirit  that  in  1700  a  law  was  passed  disabling 
even  ancient  English  Catholic  families  from  holding 


316  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

their  estates,  requiring  all  men  above  eighteen  years 
of  age  to  take  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy. 
One  to  succeed  to  any  estate  must  by  the  age  of 
twenty-one  have  further  taken  the  test  oath.  This 
outrageous  law  blotted  the  books  until  1779  when  it 
was  repealed.  All  Englishmen  in  foreign  seminaries 
were  ordered  to  return  and  none  was  to  go  out  to 
those  institutions.  In  1697  all  Catholic  soldiers  in 
English  battalions  were  dismissed  though  many  of 
them  had  fought  bravely  with  William  on  the  con- 
tinent. Priests  were  banished  and  if  returning  were 
to  be  perpetually  imprisoned.  Most  of  these  priests 
were  Jacobites  and  a  hundred  pounds'  reward  was 
offered  to  any  person  discovering  one  of  them. 

An  instance  showing  the  remarkable  spirit  of  the 
Quakers  was  of  a  woman,  Mary  Fisher,  a  preacher 
among  them  who  first  went  to  New  England;  meet- 
ing rough  usage  there,  she  returned  to  England,  and 
then,  thinking  she  was  led  by  the  spirit  of  God,  set 
out  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Turkish  Sultan, 
Mahomet  Fourth.  At  Smyrna  she  was  headed  off 
by  the  English  consul,  but  from  Venice  started 
again  overland  for  the  Turkish  camp  at  Adrianople. 
Mahomet  kindly  received  her,  granting  her  permis- 
sion to  preach  her  tenets  among  his  soldiers,  offer- 
ing her  a  guard  which  she  declined.  In  safety  she 
passed  to  Constantinople,  thence  home.  It  was  a 
curious  commentary  on  the  times  and  people  that 
she  should  be  more  kindly  treated  by  the  Moham- 
medans than  by  the  Puritans  of  Boston. 

In  England  many  of  the  Quakers  kept  in  prison 
by  the  authorities  were  basely  abused  by  the  jailors. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  317 

Penn  and  Barclay,  their  great  leaders,  were  incar- 
cerated like  the  others.  Though  William  tried  to 
alleviate  their  condition,  like  that  of  all  Dissenters, 
not  much  that  he  desired  was  accomplished.  Still 
their  prison  life  gave  their  leaders  time  to  write  much 
which  added  to  the  peculiar  prison  literature. 

In  Scotland  as  in  England  things  were  in  transi- 
tion. At  a  convention  similar  to  that  held  in  Eng- 
land which  acknowledged  William,  it  was  voted  that 
James  had  forfeited  his  title  to  the  throne,  and  Pres- 
bytery was  declared  the  natural  way  of  religion. 
Episcopacy  must  give  way  to  Presbytery.  All  min- 
isters were  ordered  to  read  the  proclamation  declar- 
ing the  accession  of  William  and  Mary,  such  as  re- 
fused being  put  out  of  their  benefices.  For  thus  re- 
fusing this  fate  befell  two  or  three  hundred.  Soon 
began  a  course  of  abuse  that  has  left  a  deep  blot  on 
Scot  history.  Mobs  of  people  attacked  the  homes 
of  those  parish  priests,  especially  in  the  western 
counties,  destroying  furniture,  burning  prayer  books 
and  vestments,  turning  whole  families  into  the 
streets,  locking  up  the  manses,  giving  peremptory 
orders  for  them  to  depart,  and  sometimes  pro- 
ceeding to  personal  violence.  This  was  called  rab- 
bling the  ministers.  However,  in  some  parts  the 
ministers  persisted  in  their  services  so  that  the  ques- 
tion of  church  life  became  a  most  troublesome  one  to 
the  government.  As  these  men  were  mostly  in  favor 
of  James,  often  scheming  for  his  return,  the  sym- 
pathies of  William  had  to  be  toward  the  Presby- 
terians. Later  by  act  of  Parliament  such  Episcopal 
ministers  as  would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  were 


318  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

permitted  to  return  to  their  parishes,  which  seventy 
did. 

In  the  settlement  of  the  Scot  situation  William 
had  no  direct  voice.  Each  party,  Episcopalian  and 
Presbyterian,  was  insistent  that  the  true  spirit  of 
Christianity  was  alone  in  its  system.  Attempts  at 
reconciliation  failed  as  comprehension  had  failed  in 
England.  When  government  by  synods  was  finally 
set  up,  the  parishes  were  given  a  modified  privilege 
of  selecting  their  own  ministers. 

The  Scot  zeal  for  religion  led  them  at  Edinburgh 
in  1697  to  hang  Thomas  Aikenhead,  a  lad  of  eight- 
een, for  repeating  arguments  against  the  Bible. 
Efforts  to  save  him  were  made  in  vain,  though  he 
heartily  recanted,  for  clergy  and  legal  men  were 
pitted  against  him.  When  hung  he  held  a  Bible  in 
his  hand.  Men  committing  such  a  murder  were  of 
such  stern  mold  as  easily  to  believe  in  witchcraft. 
A  special  commission  was  formed  to  try  such  cases, 
before  which  venerable  women  and  younger  ones 
alike  were  accused  of  traffic  with  the  devil. 

Among  the  Highlanders  at  this  time  many  old 
pagan  rites  persisted,  being  curiously  blended  with 
church  practices.  Seers  wrapping  themselves  in 
bulls'  hides  would  thus  await  inspiration  for  some 
expedition  or  for  some  claim  of  importance.  The 
Fiery  Cross,  which  often  played  so  prominent  a  fig- 
ure in  their  clan  risings,  was  dipped  in  the  blood 
of  a  freshly  killed  goat,  the  four  points  scorched  and 
extinguished,  and  being  passed  rapidly  from  hand  to 
hand  by  swift  runners  called  the  warriors  to  the 
gathering  of  arms.  Schools  were  now  set  up  in 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  319 

every  parish  of  the  kingdom,  by  which  the  common 
people,  so  quick  in  their  insight,  were  elevated 
rapidly  to  better  things,  a  great  tide  of  benefits  that 
have  come  down  through  the  generations.  Doubt- 
less Scotland  owes  more  of  her  ever-increasing  great- 
ness to  her  schools  and  her  churches  than  to  all 
things  else. 

As  James  reached  Ireland  to  make  a  fight  for  his 
throne  he  called  a  Parliament  at  Dublin  which  one 
day  passed  an  act  of  toleration,  but  the  very  next 
day,  the  gathering  being  mostly  Catholics,  passed 
an  act  by  which  land  of  Protestants  held  from  1641 
down  was  confiscated  to  the  papists,  tithes  were  to 
be  transferred  to  the  Catholic  clergy  and  no  less  than 
twenty-six  hundred  persons,  for  being  Protestants, 
were  doomed  to  death.  As  the  tide  of  battle  turned 
against  James  and  he  fled  again  to  France,  the 
Catholics  under  the  treaty  of  Limerick  were  to  have 
security  and  the  exercise  of  their  religion  as  under 
Charles  Second  on  oath  of  allegiance.  But  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  was  slow  to  give  those  favors.  Such 
soldiers  as  chose  to  go  to  the  continent  to  other  na- 
tions were  not  permitted  to  take  their  families.  Mar- 
riage beween  people  of  different  sects  was  not  al- 
lowed. Papists  could  not  buy  land  for  more  than 
thirty-one  years.  Such  were  the  laws  in  favor  of  the 
Established  Church  that  Presbyterians  were  also 
under  the  ban  as  Dissenters,  since  they  could  hold  no 
office,  civil  or  military,  and  their  meetings  were  under 
penal  liabilities.  Once,  however,  there  was  union 
and  harmony.  As  the  Romish  arms  at  the  siege  of 
Londonderry  threatened  the  devoted  thousands  of 


320  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

that  city,  eighteen  Anglican  divines  and  half  as 
many  nonconformists  united  to  use  their  utmost  in- 
fluence in  defense  and  in  sustaining  courage.  Preach- 
ing and  prayer  were  constantly  going  on.  The 
whole  people  became  a  mighty  corps  of  Ironsides. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

The  Good  Queen  Anne  was  profoundly  pious. 
She  was  so  devoted  to  the  Established  Church  as 
greatly  to  fear  toleration,  hating  dissent,  though 
promising  protection  to  Dissenters.  On  her  birth- 
day in  1704?  she  publicly  announced  what  Bishop 
Burnet  led  her  to  do,  the  transfer  of  first  fruits  and 
tenths  to  the  poor  parishes  of  the  country.  This 
money,  amounting  yearly  to  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds  or  more,  had  in  papal  times  been  given  to 
the  popes,  and  after  the  Reformation  it  had  been 
received  and  used  by  the  sovereigns.  Not  only  were 
the  priesthood  meagerly  paid,  but  in  her  time  thou- 
sands of  clerics  had  no  place  at  all  for  officiating. 
To  form  a  test  of  Anne's  claim  to  royalty  the  clergy 
had  her  make  the  trial  of  touching  to  cure  scrofulous 
diseases.  The  trial  was  claimed  to  be  a  success, 
thus  obtaining  divine  confirmation.  Samuel  Johnson, 
then  a  small  child,  was  among  those  receiving  the 
royal  touch,  though  vainly  in  his  case,  for  that  great 
scholar  suffered  all  through  life  from  the  disease, 
as  did  others  touched  by  the  Queen. 

The  clergy  tried  hard  to  have  the  Occasional  Con- 
formity Act  repealed.  No  less  than  three  times 
when  the  Commons  passed  a  bill  for  its  repeal,  did 
the  lords  defeat  it.  Then  when  Parliament  became 
strongly  Tory  and  the  heat  of  the  Sacheverell  case 
was  glowing,  a  fourth  bill  from  the  Commons  in 

1711   passed  by  the  lords  through  a  collusion  of 

S21 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Whigs  and  Tories.  For  some  years  this  repeal 
blotched  the  fair  fame  of  England,  but  after  the 
accession  of  George  First  a  Whig  Parliament  re- 
pealed the  repeal,  for  the  law  had  become  odious 
among  thoughtful  men,  since  one  of  the  most  ex- 
alted acts  of  worship  was  degraded  to  a  test  for 
office.  Cowper,  the  poet,  shot  an  arrow  by  calling 
it  "an  office  key,  the  pick  lock  to  a  place."  "Not 
for  piety  but  for  place,"  said  Dean  Swift  as  he  saw 
rakes  and  other  disreputable  ones  going  to  the  com- 
munion. An  Indemnity  Bill  to  relieve  those  unwill- 
ing to  take  the  Test  Oath  passed  nearly  every  year. 
Asperity  gradually  lost  many  of  its  thorns.  Lat- 
itudinarianism  and  Scepticism  had  done  their 
work. 

Another  law  passed  in  1714,  the  Schism  Act,  was 
designed  to  suppress  the  schools  and  seminaries  estab- 
lished by  the  Dissenters,  shutting  them  off  from 
educating  their  children  in  their  own  tenets.  Un- 
der this  law  no  one  without  a  license  from  the  bishop 
could  teach  a  public  or  a  private  school  and  school 
masters  must  conform  to  the  Anglican  liturgy  and 
take  the  sacrament.  If  they  attended  any  other 
form  of  worship  they  were  to  be  imprisoned  and  in- 
capacitated from  all  teaching.  If  most  of  the  Dis- 
senters were  harried  out  of  their  landed  holdings 
they  flocked  to  the  towns  and  cities,  where  by  trade 
and  industries  they  grew  wealthy  and  influential, 
becoming  at  the  same  time  more  intellectual  than 
the  country  people.  The  immigrants  seeking  more 
religious  freedom  than  given  them  on  the  continent 
were  also  of  a  superior  mind  and  of  a  high  grade  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  323 

industry.  It  was  said  that  most  of  European  in- 
dustry was  in  the  hands  of  Protestants. 

Sects  multiplied.  Some  of  their  names  were 
Seekers,  Waitists,  Antinomians,  Brownists,  Ranters, 
Philadelphians.  It  was  said  that  Arminianism,  that 
theological  spook  of  former  generations,  was  spread 
everywhere.  Seventh  Day  people  kept  Saturday 
sacred  instead  of  Sunday. 

Along  with  the  decay  of  religious  life  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century  the  Dissenters  were  declared  to 
have  decreased  in  numbers.  Possibly  the  toleration 
given  under  William  softened  their  temper  and  re- 
moved some  of  the  most  strenuous  incentives  to 
vigor.  During  the  long  leadership  of  Walpole,  the 
repeal  of  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  being 
rescinded  and  the  Schism  Act  repealed,  it  was  the 
studied  purpose  of  that  great  statesman  to  leave 
matters  unstirred  among  the  sects.  In  the  House 
of  Lords  it  was  laid  down  by  the  great  Lord  Mans- 
field "that  nonconformity  with  the  Established 
Church  is  recognized  by  law  and  not  an  offense  at 
which  it  connives."  A  bill  passed  while  the  Whigs 
were  in  power  to  let  the  Quakers  in  their  affirmation 
omit  the  words,  "in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God." 
These  honest  people  were  abused,  lied  about  and 
caricatured. 

Early  in  the  century  a  strong  trend  toward  Anti- 
trinitarianism  set  in  among  able  divines,  university 
professors  and  prominent  laymen.  For  a  while  laws 
against  them  were  enforced,  two  Presbyterian  min- 
isters being  deprived  of  their  parishes  for  such  views, 
as  also  Whiston,  a  Cambridge  professor.  But  the 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

trend  increased,  laws  were  neglected,  and  by  the 
middle  of  the  century  nearly  all  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  had  adopted  Unitarian  views. 

Every  opinion  of  England  in  the  early  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  shows  the  condition  of  the 
religious  life  to  have  been  most  lamentable. 

"Hogarth's  picture  of  'A  Sleeping  Congregation* 
speaks  of  the  times  when  the  bewigged  preacher  droned 
his  tedious  hours  without  the  slightest  attempt  to  teach 
the  vicious  or  to  arouse  the  indifferent." 

What  fire  blazed  was  between  the  sects.  Shock- 
ing morals  prevailed  among  public  men.  Smuggling 
and  the  slave  trade  were  regarded  as  lawful  and  in- 
nocent, though  a  few  Quakers  had  begun  declaring 
an  opposition  to  the  latter  that  never  ceased  until 
its  utter  extinction.  The  fear  of  a  Stuart  move- 
ment hung  like  a  pall  over  the  nation,  a  constant 
threat  to  spiritual  liberty  and  consitutional  free- 
dom. One  of  the  bishops,  Atterbury  of  Rochester, 
was  discovered  in  a  plot  to  seat  the  Pretender  on  the 
throne,  and  being  arrested  was  convicted  of  treason, 
but  escaping  to  France,  remained  in  exile  until  his 
death. 

Indeed,  the  quiet  accession  of  the  House  of  Han- 
over and  the  triumph  of  constitutional  over  irrespon- 
sible royalty  were  largely  owing  to  the  sturdy  ad- 
herence of  the  nonconformists  to  that  House.  But 
these  prosperous  sectaries  along  with  the  Churchmen 
shamefully  neglected  the  lower  classes.  After  the 
distressing  war  with  France  a  rapid  increase  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  325 

population  came,  but  no  corresponding  increase  of 
attention  to  the  moral,  intellectual,  spiritual  needs  of 
those  people  took  place.  Not  a  new  parish  was 
formed.  A  new  church  was  seldom  built.  No  new 
schools  were  founded.  The  rural  peasantry  was  left 
with  hardly  any  moral  instruction,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  the  lowly  in  the  cities  was  hardly  better. 
Mobs  sacked  and  pillaged  at  will  and  terrified  the 
city.  Ladies  went  to  church  to  ogle,  flirt  and  gos- 
sip. To  the  royal  chapel  of  St.  James  they  would 
carry  their  fancy  work  and  knit  during  service. 
Pauperism  increased,  this  being  laid  against  the  in- 
dustry of  the  continental  refugees  and  the  aid  ex- 
tended to  them.  Yet  the  handicrafts  brought  by 
them  and  the  infusion  of  their  sturdy  faith  were  in- 
valuable to  England. 

But  deep  as  were  these  fetid  streams,  others  of 
purer  water  were  deeper.  Later  decades  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  were  to  show  how  true  and  devout  the 
British  heart  could  be  when  properly  led  in  better 
ways.  Feasts  and  fasts  were  observed  as  occasion 
arose.  Hospitals  were  built  by  laymen,  who  also 
did  something  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  prisoners 
in  Newgate  and  in  other  jails.  For  a  while  after  the 
earthquake  at  Lisbon  indecent  masquerades  were 
suppressed  in  fear  of  a  similar  stroke  from  Prov- 
idence upon  sinning  London.  Inmates  of  the  work- 
houses were  taught  some  industry  and  reading,  writ- 
ing, arithmetic  as  well.  To  them  was  also  given 
religious  instruction.  To  meet  the  needs  of  growing 
London,  Parliament  voted  three  hundred  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  to  build  fifty  new  churches,  though  but 


326  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

twelve  were  erected.  In  planning  these  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren  and  his  pupils  put  to  work  their  genius 
for  architecture. 

Under  Walpole  the  Whig  party  retained  its  old 
love  for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  yielding  stability 
and  breadth  to  the  nation  morally  and  financially. 

Walpole  dared  to  extend  liberal  feelings  toward 
Catholics.  Societies  to  suppress  evil  and  to  aid  in 
works  of  charity  and  devotion  were  formed  among 
the  churches.  Hoadly,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  preached 
such  liberal  doctrines  and  showed  his  spirit  so  pro- 
gressive that  he  was  half  berated  by  others,  the 
Bangorian  controversy  being  so  intense  that  the 
government,  really  in  sympathy  with  him,  closed  the 
Convocation,  which  was  not  called  again  for  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half.  Hoadly  himself  was  promoted 
by  the  King. 

There  was  some  decency  in  the  morals  of  Anne's 
court,  but  that  seems  to  have  fled  as  the  court  of 
George  First  was  set  up.  The  manners  of  the  new 
King  were  coarse  and  brutal,  his  relations  with 
women  infamous ;  violence  and  corruption  were  the 
potent  powers  of  rule.  Walpole,  so  long  the  domi- 
nating minister,  used  bribery  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  with  the  Queen  and  with  the  Dissenters.  He 
seemed  incapable  of  comprehending  any  exalted  sen- 
timent in  man.  Defoe  said  there  was  a  set  of  stock 
jobbers  in  London  whose  business  was  to  buy  and 
sell  seats  in  Parliament,  the  price  being  a  thousand 
guineas.  Even  the  great  Marlborough  was  under- 
stood to  grow  rich  by  shady  ways,  by  using  money 
furnished  for  his  famous  campaigns  on  the  continent 


i 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  327 

and  by  other  questionable  means,  while  his  officers, 
down  to  non-commissioned  ones,  were  guilty  of 
similar  peculations.  Gaming  houses  became  places 
of  unspeakable  vice  and  women  joined  in  the  pas- 
sion for  gambling. 

Drunkenness  was  greatly  increased  in  the  early 
Hanoverian  time  by  the  introduction  of  gin.  Be- 
fore this  the  habit  had  deepened  by  the  excesses  of 
the  soldiers  returning  from  the  campaigns  on  the  con- 
tinent. The  introduction  of  light  French  wines  also 
gave  an  impulse  to  the  awful  vice.  Great  men  were 
in  the  toils.  Addison  was  not  free  from  the  weak- 
ness; Oxford  would  come  drunk  into  the  Queen's 
presence.  Walpole's  father  would  require  his  son  to 
drink  twice  to  his  once  that  the  young  man  might  not 
see  his  father  drunk.  Walpole's  later  debauchery 
showed  the  fruit.  It  was  considered  a  disgrace  by 
the  gentry  to  let  a  man  go  out  of  their  houses  sober. 
Among  the  common  people  beer  and  ale  took  the  place 
of  the  costlier  liquors  among  the  rich.  Laws  had 
permitted  all  to  brew  these  cheap  drinks,  the  amount 
in  1688  with  a  population  of  but  five  millions  was 
twelve  million  four  hundred  thousand  barrels.  By 
1751  the  population  of  London  was  said  to  be 
sensibly  decreased,  so  great  was  the  mortality  and 
diminished  birthrate  induced  by  drink.  Nor  was  it 
in  London  and  other  great  cities  alone.  Mrs. 
Montagu,  writing  in  a  private  letter  from  Yorkshire 
at  this  time,  deprecated  the  drunken  and  vicious  con- 
dition of  the  people,  saying:  "Most  of  the  poor 
ladies  in  the  neighborhood  have  more  hogs  in  their 
drawing-rooms  than  they  ever  had  in  their  pigsty." 


328  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

So  alarmed  did  the  government  finally  become  that 
stringent  laws  were  made,  and  better  sentiment  grow- 
ing up,  the  evil  gradually  lessened,  although  it  has 
come  down  to  the  present  day,  an  awful  heritage  of 
suffering. 

The  famous  fairs  held  in  London,  St.  Bartholo- 
mews, Southwark  and  others,  while  yielding  a  coarse 
enjoyment  to  the  people,  became  places  of  such  de- 
bauchery that  the  government  finally  suppressed 
them.  As  if  nothing  appealed  in  vain  to  the  low 
spirit  of  the  age,  astrology  ran  mad,  while  witchcraft 
caused  several  to  be  burned  in  Anne's  time,  the  law  up 
to  the  ninth  year  of  George  Second's  reign  making 
it  a  capital  crime.  A  feature  of  the  social  life  exert- 
ing great  influence  was  the  Coffee  Houses,  which 
must  have  been  an  improvement  on  the  taverns  and 
other  places  of  liquor  drinking.  The  people,  lacking 
newspapers,  flocked  to  the  coffee  houses  to  exchange 
the  latest  items  of  gossip,  court  rumor,  politics,  or 
news  from  the  continent.  Oddly,  religious  discussion 
was  totally  debarred.  Rules  also  against  profanity 
and  brawling  were  enforced.  To  these  houses  liter- 
ary men  came,  politicians,  bishops,  and  any  one  who 
could  pay  five  cents  for  a  drink  and  a  sandwich.  The 
elegant  Swift,  the  lordly  Johnson,  the  poetic  Dryden, 
would  frequently  be  found  there,  their  table  talk  in 
some  instances  making  this  or  that  coffee  house  re- 
nowned. Being  open  to  all  they  bred  democratic 
feelings. 

No  member  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  can  read  the 
history  of  prisons  and  prison  life  in  those  times  with- 
out a  thrill  of  shame  and  indignation.  Their  atroci- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


329 


ties  came  into  notice  and  the  first  steps  toward 
reformation  were  effected  by  a  report  of  a  committee 
from  Parliament.  Under  great  suffering  a  friend 
of  General  Oglethorpe  had  died  in  prison  and  that 
noble-hearted  man  from  his  place  in  the  Commons  suc- 
ceeded in  having  a  committee  of  investigation  formed. 
Such  scrutiny  had  been  attempted  before  and  had 
failed.  It  was  found  that  jailors  brutally  abused  the 
prisoners ;  respectable  debtors  unable  to  pay  their 
prison  fees  were  confined  among  those  suffering  from 
smallpox;  from  the  unsanitary  conditions  fevers 
were  engendered,  of  which  many  died,  the  contagion 
sometimes  going  out  and  starting  a  plague.  In  the 
courts  of  law  when  trying  cases  judges  and  jurymen 
were  smitten  to  death  by  the  foul,  noisome  poison  of 
such  conditions.  Prisoners  had  to  catch  mice  for 
food,  were  confined  in  underground  dungeons  and 
beaten  by  the  jailors  and  sometimes  compelled  to  live 
with  the  hogs.  Beyond  what  can  now  be  written 
Oglethorpe's  committee  found  to  be  going  on,  while 
those  high  in  office  either  neglected  their  duties  in  the 
matter  or  received  pay  for  their  duplicity.  Some- 
times felons  whose  punishment  was  death  were  asked 
to  plead  before  the  judges  and  if  they  refused  were 
subjected  to  what  was  called  Pressing  to  Death.  In 
a  dungeon  such  a  culprit  was  stretched  on  his  back, 
feet  and  legs  extended  and  tied,  then  a  board  was 
placed  upon  his  chest  with  stones  on  it  of  a  certain 
weight  in  which  plight,  badly  fed,  he  would  remain 
day  and  night  till  he  died.  A  book,  "The  Cry  of  the 
Oppressed,"  also  called  attention  to  these  enormities. 
Still,  little  was  done  in  behalf  of  prisoners. 


330  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

If  only  such  things  as  these  were  seen,  the  moral 
condition  of  England  during  the  early  eighteenth 
century  might  have  seemed  hopeless.  But  as  the 
century  passed  on,  in  the  darkness  was  light.  Not 
wholly  had  the  real  Christian  spirit  died  out.  The 
regular  ordinances  of  the  Anglican  Church  were  sus- 
tained, the  services  of  the  Dissenters  were  carried  on, 
though  in  all  the  church  labors  there  was  little  light 
or  advance.  A  kindlier  feeling  was  developing. 
A  rebound  from  gross  drunkenness  was  taking 
place.  Young  men  were  laying  aside  their  swords 
on  the  streets  so  that  murders  and  duels 
were  less  frequent.  With  fines  collected  against 
the  profane,  drunken  and  foul,  charity  schools  were 
established,  children  clothed,  and  put  out  to 
trades.  In  these  various  reforms,  laymen  took  an 
important  place.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  who  or- 
dered such  atrocious  slaughter  of  the  wounded  and 
prisoners  after  the  battle  of  Culloden,  was  despised 
and  sent  to  merited  obscurity. 

In  a  bill  offered  by  Halifax  the  Cottonian  collec- 
tion of  priceless  manuscripts  was  given  to  public  use, 
forming  the  nucleus  of  the  British  Museum.  A  single 
great  artist,  Hogarth,  glorified  this  age.  His  was 
also  a  high  moral  purpose,  the  homely  pictures  of 
common  life  being  designed  to  aid  in  uplifting  morals. 
Puritanism  is  accused  of  having  destroyed  art,  yet 
the  spirit  of  Hogarth  is  that  of  Puritanism.  Music, 
like  art,  produced  no  great  musician.  The  renowned 
German  composer,  Handel,  came  to  England,  setting 
up  a  theater  in  which  his  lighter  work  was  produced ; 
but  meeting  with  financial  failure,  he  turned  from  his 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  331 

opera  to  sacred  music,  bringing  out  in  1732  his  great 
oratorio,  "Esther,"  followed  by  "Deborah,"  "Saul" 
and  others.  Yet  these  did  not  meet  with  full  recogni- 
tion in  London.  Then  he  went  to  Dublin,  where  the 
music-loving  Irish  appreciated  his  rich  productions 
and  gave  the  musician  abundant  success.  His  su- 
premest  oratorio,  "Messiah,"  made  its  first  appear- 
ance in  that  city.  Returning  to  London,  his  high 
contribution  to  sacred  music  was  finally  understood 
and  appreciated,  and  Handel,  now  old  and  blind,  was 
richly  compensated. 

But  if  sterility  marked  music  and  art  in  England, 
the  product  of  the  press  may  be  regarded  as  an  offset. 
The  lifting  of  censorship  had  set  the  tide  free. 
Floods  of  printed  matter  poured  forth.  The  com- 
mon form  used  was  pamphlets.  Books  also  were  pro- 
duced, some  indeed  of  no  pigmy  size  but  huge  folios 
with  hundreds  of  pages.  Now  magazines  and  reviews 
offer  vent  to  discussions  which  then  found  avenues 
through  pamphlets  singly  issued  by  the  writers.  In 
the  first  decade  or  two  of  the  century  religious  mat- 
ters led  in  this  activity,  almost  all  the  work  of  the 
press  touching  this  life  on  one  side  or  the  other. 
Says  Wyon: 

"Since  the  emancipation  of  the  press  scarcely  a  month 
has  passed  without  some  crazy  person  exciting  a  sensa- 
tion in  religious  circles  by  publishing  a  book  to  show 
the  absurdity  of  the  Christian  religion,  or  to  prove  that 
the  doctrines  and  ceremonies  of  the  church  had  been 
erroneously  deduced  from  the  Scriptures." 

But  the  blossoming  freedom  of  the  press  did  not 


332  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

send  out  its  aroma  without  being  troubled.  The  old 
fear  of  the  press  lingered  in  the  Commons,  which  at- 
tempted to  assume  even  yet  a  depressing  censorship 
over  it.  Swift  and  Defoe  were  severely  handled  by 
that  irate  body,  while  newspaper  writers  had  to  beg 
pardon  on  their  knees  before  the  Commons  for  writing 
squibs  on  passing  events.  A  book  on  manners  by  the 
poet  Whitehead  was  burned  by  the  hangman,  as  was 
a  volume  of  sermons  by  one  of  the  bishops.  But  the 
tide  could  not  be  stopped  by  such  obstructions,  since 
they  were  gradually  overcome  and  the  press  worked 
onward  in  its  high  mission.  The  free  issue  of  period- 
icals was  for  a  time  checked  by  the  stamp  tax,  even 
the  choice  works  of  Addison  and  Steele  suffering 
under  it.  The  way  of  pensions  to  literary  men  was 
doubtless  a  wise  one,  both  Whig  and  Tory  govern- 
ments granting  such  aid,  thus  enabling  literary  men 
to  devote  themselves  to  literary  toil.  Newton  and 
Locke  were  able  to  leave  to  us  a  richer  legacy  in  sci- 
ence and  philosophy  for  the  pensions  conferred  on 
them.  Steele,  Addison,  Prior,  and  many  others  en- 
riched literature  yet  more  for  monetary  aid,  yielding 
leisure  that  literary  men  must  needs  obtain. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

Along  with  this  activity  of  the  press,  and  partly  a 
product  of  it,  was  the  elevation  of  the  people.  As 
the  masses  read  these  discussions  and  their  Bibles  a 
consciousness  of  rights,  of  liberty,  of  free  speech  and 
broader  outlook  came  to  them.  One  manifestation 
of  this  was  that  the  electors  began  to  send  instruc- 
tions to  their  representatives  in  the  Commons  how  to 
vote  on  pending  issues.  Such  right  had  been  used 
in  Cromwell's  time,  but  had  ceased  until  now.  Its 
power  among  the  people  and  the  movement  toward 
democracy  scared  some  politicians  and  observers,  but 
what  the  nation  had  for  two  centuries  been  strug- 
gling for  was  now  in  part  being  attained.  The 
steady-headed  and  true-hearted  Anglo-Saxon  race 
was  working  forward  in  its  vocation,  if  through  mists 
and  rough  ways.  Not  alone  were  the  British  people 
helped  by  these  matters;  the  arms  of  William  and 
Marlborough,  the  philosophy  of  Locke  and  others, 
and  the  free  speech  attained,  carried  similar  ideas  to 
the  continent,  so  that  all  western  Europe  was  sown 
with  the  seeds  of  rights  that  ever  since  have  been 
yielding  their  beneficent  fruit  to  God's  children. 
England  became  Europe's  educator.  Yet  the  negro 
slave  had  no  apostle  of  his  rights  among  the  clergy 
or  leading  Christian  people. 

All  the  sects  were  inactive.  Doubtless  in  no  age 
following  the  Reformation  was  religious  life  so  dull. 
In  the  Established  Church  the  large  number  of  cures 

333 


334  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

not  affording  more  than  fifty  pounds  a  year  kept 
able  men  from  the  ministry.  No  great  prelates  led 
the  clergy  of  lower  grades.  These  men  gradually  fell 
into  the  contempt  of  the  advancing  intelligence  of 
the  people,  who  came  to  honor  Hoadly  in  his  aggres- 
sive advance.  Satirists  made  the  condition  of  the 
Establishment  the  butt  of  their  jokes.  After  the 
House  of  Hanover  ascended  the  throne  the  old  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  right  of  kings  fell  out  of  cleric 
contention.  Says  one: 

"The  strength  of  the  church  party  in  England  was  the 
most  serious  danger  which  threatened  the  parliamentary 
institutions  of  England," 

But  valuable  additions  were  made  to  literature, 
since  some  of  the  quiet  parishes  and  well-paid  offices 
afforded  the  clerics  leisure  and  support,  enabling 
them  to  spend  much  time  in  productive  study. 

So  severely  were  the  laws  against  Catholics  pressed 
that  most  of  them  had  fled  to  the  continent,  establish- 
ing seminaries  in  Spain,  Portugal,  Flanders,  France, 
and  Italy  to  educate  their  children  and  priests.  By 
a  law  of  George  First  two  justices  of  the  peace  might 
at  any  time  and  without  previous  complaint  tender 
the  oath  of  allegiance  and  of  abjuration  to  any  Cath- 
olic, who,  if  he  refused,  was  liable  to  all  the  penalties 
of  recusancy.  This  law  was  made  an  instrument  of 
private  hatred  and  revenge.  Mobs  sometimes  wrecked 
the  chapels  of  the  papists  and  howled  at  them  when 
carried  as  prisoners  through  the  streets.  For  enlist- 
ing as  soldiers  they  could  be  punished.  In  1745,  when 
the  order  was  given  to  hunt  out  all  Jesuits  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  335 

priests,  a  protest  was  put  in  by  the  Catholic  conti- 
nental nations,  to  which  the  Secretary  of  State  replied 
by  stating  the  fears  arising  from  their  increase. 
From  the  Reformation  to  the  Revolution,  and  after, 
the  only  recourse  of  the  Catholics  was  to  submit  in 
fear  and  silence  and  leave  to  historians  of  a  calmer 
age  the  duty  of  vindicating  their  reputation.  A  bill 
was  passed  to  naturalize  the  Jews,  but  was  repealed 
after  a  year,  so  great  was  the  cry  from  Churchmen 
that  it  was  an  abandonment  of  Christianity. 

A  curious  episode  occurred  in  1709.  One  Sachev- 
erell,  a  royal  chaplain  of  no  marked  ability  was  sent 
to  preach  before  the  Lord  Mayor  and  aldermen  at  St. 
Paul's,  as  he  had  previously  done  at  the  assizes.  In 
these  sermons  he  attacked  the  Whig  administration  ve- 
hemently, denounced  toleration,  renewed  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance,  declared  the  church  in  danger  from 
Dissenters,  and  like  most  Christian  people  deplored 
the  age  of  scepticism.  The  Lord  Mayor  had  the  St. 
Paul's  sermon  printed,  and  immediately  arose  a  vast 
commotion.  So  intense  grew  the  uproar  that  the 
Whig  Ministry  decided  that  Sacheverell  should  be  im- 
peached. To  this  act  the  Commons  proceeded. 
Rash  was  the  step,  for  the  clergy,  having  at  their 
back  the  great  majority  of  the  nation,  made  Sachev- 
erell a  hero,  as  did  the  mobs.  Amidst  a  whirl  of  wild- 
est noise  and  partisanship  the  trial  went  on,  but  all 
the  penalty  inflicted  was  that  he  should  not  preach  or 
receive  a  benefice  for  three  years,  be  imprisoned  for 
three  months,  and  have  the  fateful  sermons  burned 
by  the  hangman.  Out  of  prison,  making  a  progress 
from  town  to  town  he  received  the  parade  of  a  con- 


336  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

queror.  An  election  soon  following,  a  strong  Tory 
house  was  returned,  the  trial  of  the  obscure  priest 
having  cost  the  Whigs  the  control  of  national  mat- 
ters. 

On  Anne's  accession  the  Episcopalians  in  Scotland, 
knowing  her  love  for  that  church,  were  highly  elated, 
but  a  Parliament  formed  in  William's  time  held  over. 
This  body  defended  Presbytery.  The  Scot  Parlia- 
ment ratified  by  a  large  majority  an  act  of  1689 
making  it  high  treason  to  alter  by  writing  or  speech 
the  Claim  of  Right  which  denounced  Episcopacy  as 
unsupportably  grievous  to  Scotland.  By  this  act  if 
any  Episcopalian  should  stand  up  for  his  own  views 
he  would  run  the  risk  of  being  hung  and  quartered. 
As  late  as  1746  the  Episcopalians  were  subjected  to 
most  distressing  laws  of  restriction.  Such  extreme 
positions  were  really  in  accord  with  the  extreme  views 
of  a  vast  number  of  the  Scots. 

Hardly  less  were  the  Catholics  hated,  though  some 
powerful  families  of  that  faith  were  able  to  shield 
their  fellow  believers,  while  the  Highlanders  were 
wholly  Catholic.  Among  these  one  small  seminary 
for  educating  priests  was  kept  up.  In  Edinburgh 
even  vestments  and  altar  trinkets  were  searched  for 
and  burned,  and  three  priests  found  hiding  were  im- 
prisoned. As  the  union  with  England  was  under  dis- 
cussion great  fear  arose  lest  after  the  union,  the 
Anglicans  predominating,  the  British  Parliament 
would  set  up  the  Establishment  in  Scotland,  so  the 
Scot  commissioners  made  it  a  point  that  the  united 
Parliament  should  establish  Presbytery  as  the  mode 
of  church  government  in  Scotland  forever.  This  was 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  337 

fully  allowed.  Each  people  was  to  retain  its  own 
chosen  way  of  church  government. 

When  the  plans  for  union  were  completed  and  in 
London  a  great  spectacular  demonstration  was  taking 
place,  in  Scotland,  by  a  plan  of  the  clergy  who  had 
always  opposed  the  union,  it  was  made  a  day  of  na- 
tional mourning  to  propitiate  Deity  who  was  deemed 
to  be  punishing  the  Scot  people  for  their  sins.  But 
the  union  brought  immense  benefits  to  Scotland. 
The  Presbytery  established,  and  free  trade  with  En- 
gland gained,  the  hatred  of  long  generations  grad- 
ually gave  way  and  Scotland  was  given  an  impulse 
along  the  highways  of  wealth,  culture,  religious  prog- 
ress and  personal  improvement,  such  as  has  seldom 
visited  a  nation.  Along  with  other  progress  was  a 
most  important  evangelical  movement  under  Erskine 
beginning  in  1733,  similar  to  that  in  England  under 
the  Wesleys.  Whitefield  fraternized  and  worked  with 
this  movement  when  on  his  famous  preaching  tours. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
religious  condition  of  Ireland  was  most  deplorable. 
Unfortunately  when  the  Bible  was  translated  into 
English  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  it  was  not 
done  in  the  language  of  the  Irish.  On  the  island  the 
Anglican  Church  was  by  law  in  power,  yet  could  ex- 
tend its  power  over  but  a  limited  part  of  the  country, 
being  confined  to  the  so-called  Pale,  a  strip  on  the 
Irish  Sea  contiguous  to  England.  The  Scot  Presby- 
terians dominated  in  Ulster,  and  the  Catholics  every- 
where else  outside  the  Pale.  These  three  forms  of 
religious  practice  could  by  no  means  endure  one 
another.  Many  French  Huguenots  fled  to  Ireland, 


338  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

conforming  in  most  instances  to  the  Anglican  ritual. 
They  set  up  schools  and  established  important  manu- 
factures of  linen,  silks  and  so  on,  bringing  wealth  and 
valuable  influences  to  the  country. 

The  penal  laws  laid  on  Ireland  in  William's  time 
were  kept  in  operation  now,  notwithstanding  the 
treaty  of  Limerick,  and  these,  with  other  repressive 
laws,  hit  hard  upon  the  Presbyterians  as  well  as  the 
Catholics.  But  the  stout  Scot  spirit  could  ill  brook 
such  indignities.  In  religious  matters  the  Presby- 
terians were  active,  occupying  parishes  deserted  by 
the  Anglicans,  sending  missionaries  among  the  Irish, 
in  time  of  war  heartily  joining  the  English.  But  in 
the  early  Hanover  dynasty  a  dark  wave  of  impiety 
and  scepticism  spread  over  these  people ;  infidel  clubs 
arose,  education  and  divine  worship  were  neglected, 
while  Sabbath  breaking,  gaming,  profanity  and 
drunkenness,  increased. 

The  story  of  the  Catholics  during  this  time  is  one 
of  the  blackest  of  any  people  in  modern  ages.  Both 
at  home  and  in  Ireland  the  English  were  mortally 
afraid  of  them.  And  there  were  some  reasons. 
Their  hearty  support  of  James  Second,  their  course 
toward  Protestants  on  the  continent,  the  plots  and 
emissaries  in  England,  could  not  but  engender  such 
suspicions.  Hence  the  course  the  English  govern- 
ment pursued  was  always  repressive.  Indeed  the 
great  officers  declared  that  the  laws  did  not  suppose 
any  such  person  as  an  Irish  Catholic  to  exist.  Being 
denied  school  teachers  of  their  own  as  well  as  the  uni- 
versities and  the  privilege  of  sending  their  children 
abroad  for  education,  the  native  Irish  lapsed  into  a 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  339 

most  brutal  and  ignorant  condition.  The  Quakers 
of  England  had  in  their  noble  spirit  gone  in  Crom- 
well's time  as  missionaries,  and  their  work  of  preach- 
ing, exhorting  and  winning  the  people  to  better  ways 
had  existed  to  this  time.  But  their  results  were 
small. 

To  celebrate  mass  Irish  priests  had  been  compelled 
to  register,  and  this  to  the  number  of  a  thousand 
they  did.  Later  the  oath  of  allegiance  was  de- 
manded, followed  by  that  of  abjuration,  which  re- 
pudiated the  Stuart  dynasty  as  well  as  some  of  the 
central  dogmas  of  Catholicism.  Farther  on  the 
whole  hierarchy,  archbishops,  bishops,  deans,  priests, 
were  ordered  out  of  the  country  with  a  penalty  of 
death  for  treason  if  they  returned.  Friars  were 
under  similar  penalty.  But  enforce  the  laws  as  the 
English  might,  brave  bishops  and  priests  passed 
among  their  people,  hiding  in  their  huts,  skulking  in 
the  forests  and  bogs.  To  allure  the  Catholics  from 
their  faith,  offers  of  protection,  of  place,  of  money, 
were  made,  but  coaxing  was  as  futile  as  compulsion. 
In  time  the  English  found  the  utter  futility  of  such 
measures  to  make  the  Catholics  become  Protestants 
and  by  very  neglect  some  mitigation  came. 

The  sceptical  movement  in  England  formed  no 
small  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the  nation.  Lord 
Herbert  claimed  that  religion  was  founded  not  upon 
revelation  but  upon  immediate  consciousness  of  God 
and  divine  things,  declaring  with  the  Quakers  and 
some  other  Dissenters  that  an  internal  light  was  su- 
perior to  a  revelation.  Even  if  a  revelation  was 
given  to  man,  Lord  Herbert  said,  no  one  could  sue- 


340  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

cessfully  transfer  it  to  another  man.  He  believed 
in  a  God  whom  men  ought  to  reverence  and  worship, 
in  holiness  of  life  and  repentance  of  sin,  with  rewards 
and  punishments  after  death.  His  prayer  offered 
about  publishing  one  of  his  books  and  the  answer  he 
believed  he  had  to  it  are  most  delightful  and  simple. 
The  roots  of  his  teaching  and  that  of  Hobbes  ran 
back  centuries.  Hobbes  was  a  giant  thinker  whose 
greatest  book,  "The  Leviathan,"  treated  of  religion, 
philosophy  and  politics.  Sustaining  the  Stuarts  in 
their  claim  to  despotic  royalty,  he  tried  to  block 
progress  and  freedom.  For  a  while  he  was  the  tutor 
of  Charles  Second  at  Paris.  Great  excitement  arose 
over  the  discussions  of  his  theories,  it  being  said  that 
in  every  tavern  and  coffee  house,  in  Westminster 
Hall,  and  even  in  the  churches  he  was  hotly  talked 
about.  Locke's  teachings  were  somewhat  like  those 
of  Hobbes.  But  the  works  of  Francis  Bacon,  also 
written  along  this  period,  were  of  high  religious  cast 
and  influence.  He  went  directly  to  nature  to  learn 
by  experiment  what  was  taught.  The  Inductive 
Philosophy  was  devout,  making  no  real  attack  upon 
Christianity. 

Still  the  sceptical  movement  gained  momentum. 
Montesquieu  visiting  England  wrote,  "Everyone 
laughs  if  one  talks  religion."  Voltaire,  also  in  Eng- 
land, said  that  only  enough  religion  was  left  in  that 
country  to  distinguish  the  Tories  who  had  little 
from  Whigs  who  had  less.  Swift's  satire,  termed 
"Abolishing  Dissenters,"  was  not  too  severe  a  cut. 

The  name  Deism  was  given  to  this  sceptical  drift. 
It  was  hot  so  much  irreligious  as  an  attempt  to  find 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

religion  outside  of  the  Bible.  It  claimed  a  pure, 
primitive  religion  among  mankind  before  revelation. 
Bishop  Berkeley  of  Cloyne,  an  ardent  pupil  of  Locke, 
wrote  books  helping  to  a  higher  philosophic  insight 
and  a  better  religious  spirit. 

A  prominent  school  of  Deist  writers  arose,  whose 
books  met  with  instant  and  able  replies  from  well 
equipped  clergy  and  others.  Charles  Blount,  John 
Toland,  Anthony  Collins,  Thomas  Woolston,  Mat- 
thew Tindal,  Thomas  Chubb,  and  Lord  Shaftesbury 
attacked  the  Bible  and  Christianity  on  various 
grounds. 

Since  Paul  and  Jesus  departed  wholly  from  that 
part  of  the  Scriptures,  the  burden  of  Thomas  Magan's 
writings  was  against  the  Old  Testament.  In  Lord 
Bolingbroke's  attack  upon  the  Bible  he  charged  Jesus 
with  giving  equivocal  answers  to  the  Jews  and  with 
keeping  them  in  error.  God  was  so  elevated  that  he 
could  not  be  an  example  to  man.  David  Hume,  the 
historian,  urged  that  "beyond  the  uniform  succession 
of  sensible  phenomena  there  is  nothing  proved  of  self, 
of  God,  or  of  moral  government."  His  famous  argu- 
ment against  miracles  rests  on  the  relation  of  testi- 
mony to  experience.  By  experience  we  see  the  uni- 
formity of  nature,  as  is  true  of  the  reliableness  of 
testimony  to  experience.  As  these  balance  each 
other,  we  cannot  believe  a  miracle.  Hume  repudiated 
the  name  of  being  an  infidel  or  a  Deist,  and  in  his 
later  life  leaned  more  and  more  toward  views  held  by 
church  people.  Gibbon,  possibly  the  greatest  his- 
torian of  our  race,  closed  alike  the  school  of  sceptics 
and  the  eighteenth  century.  While  in  college  he 


342  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

accepted  the  Catholic  belief,  but  later,  as  he  pursued 
his  extensive  historical  studies,  turned  from  it.  He 
failed  to  see  the  vast  superiority  of  Christianity  to 
the  imperfect  systems  of  religion  that  he  treated  in  his 
"Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire."  Like 
Hume,  in  his  later  years  he  saw  better  things  in 
Christianity. 

The  whole  sceptical  movement  died  for  lack  of 
truth  in  it.  Its  many  positions  were  so  ably  attacked 
by  Bentley,  Paley,  Doddridge,  Chandler,  Leland,  by 
Butler  in  his  immortal  book,  "The  Analogy  of  Re- 
vealed Religions,"  and  by  others  that  it  was  certain 
to  die.  These  had  truth  and  ability  and  culture  on 
their  side.  But  its  teachings  taken  to  the  continent, 
led  to  disaster  in  French  politics  and  in  German  the- 
ology. And  the  most  effective  answer  to  it  all  was 
the  rise  of  Methodism  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eight- 
eenth century. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

"Wesleyanism  has  acted  as  a  cement  of  the  English-speaking 
race  and  thereby  contributed  materially  toward  the  solution 
of  the  supreme  political  problems  of  our  times.  The  Wesley 
brothers,  who  founded  the  Methodist  polity,  are  a  more  living 
force  to-day,  constraining  the  minds  of  the  English-speaking 
men  to  brotherly  feeling  and  a  sense  of  national  unity,  than 
the  Wellesleys,  although  the  Wellesleys  reared  the  Indian  Em- 
pire and  crushed  the  empire  of  Napoleon." 

— W.  T.  STEAD. 

The  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  en- 
nobled by  the  Methodist  movement.  First  of  all 
Methodism  was  a  revival.  While  its  doctrines  had 
been  taught  more  or  less  fully  before  its  rise,  and 
some  of  its  plans  of  organization  had  been  used  by 
the  societies  of  the  preceding  century  and  by  the 
Moravians,  its  spirit  was  a  renewal.  Both  the  Wes- 
leys  and  Whitefield  were  ardent  churchmen,  but  the 
Church  did  not  see  its  opportunity  to  keep  the  new 
spirit  within  itself  and  use  it.  A  like  mistake  was 
also  made  when  Puritanism  was  thrust  out  of  the 
Anglican  Church.  Unity  of  doctrine,  ritual,  plans  of 
work,  have  been  found  impossible  in  Protestantism. 
Freedom  has  nurtured  wider  opportunities.  Man  is 
a  free  being,  each  finding  it  his  joy  to  pursue  paths  of 
his  own  selection.  In  such  paths  he  can  best  work 
for  himself  and  others.  It  was  these  rights  that  the 
little  knot  of  Oxford  students  sought  when  they 
formed  the  Holy  Club. 

As  they  studied  the  Greek  Testament,  did  good 
343 


344  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

works,  frequented  the  church  and  communion,  lived 
in  ways  methodical,  they  well  earned  the  nickname 
of  Methodists.  Their  plan,  like  the  mustard  seed  of 
the  parable,  had  rich,  expansive  life.  John  Wesley, 
by  his  supreme  administrative  ability,  easily  became 
the  leader.  He  did  not  find  his  true  vocation  until 
through  the  teachings  of  the  Moravians  a  strange 
warming  of  his  heart  took  place  in  the  little  gather- 
ing at  Aldersgate  Street  Church  that  memorable  day, 
May  24,  1738.  At  that  hour  an  impulse  was  given 
to  the  great  heart  of  one  having  a  masterful  intellect, 
which  was  to  change  profoundly  the  Anglo-Saxon  re- 
ligious life.  A  similar  uplift  of  soul  about  the  same 
time  had  come  to  Charles  Wesley  and  to  Whitefield, 
the  revival  work  of  the  three  being  mostly  united  at 
that  time. 

Their  preaching  and  intensity  aroused  the  sleep- 
ing churches  of  London  that  did  not  like  to  be 
aroused,  so  they  were  quickly  closed  to  the  stirring 
evangelists.  But  the  neglected  masses  of  the  people 
would  listen  and  heed.  If  the  new  preachers  could 
not  speak  in  the  churches,  they  could  appeal  to  the 
crowds  gathered  on  the  hillsides  and  in  the  natural 
amphitheaters  of  Cornwall  and  on  the  heaths  about 
London.  The  people  of  England  were  ready  for  ad- 
vance in  religion  if  it  could  be  offered  them  in  a  direct, 
hearty  manner.  This  the  new  preaching  did.  John 
Wesley  at  first  shrank  from  outdoor  preaching,  think- 
ing, with  his  high  church  notions,  that  it  would  be 
almost  a  sin  for  one  to  be  saved  outside  a  church. 
But  under  the  successful  example  of  Whitefield  he 
quickly  yielded  his  scruples,  taking  to  field-preaching 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  345 

himself.  From  the  coalpits  of  Cornwall  the  people 
came  to  listen,  to  be  so  awakened  to  their  sins  as  to 
fall  to  weeping,  the  tears  making  white  gutters  down 
their  faces  through  the  grime. 

These  awakened  masses  needed  pastoral  care  such 
as  they  were  not  likely  to  get  in  the  churches,  either 
from  the  Establishment  or  among  the  nonconform- 
ists. Led  in  what  seemed  to  Wesley,  as  it  must  to  the 
student  of  history,  the  most  clearly  providential  ways 
Wesley  began  organizing  the  converts  into  societies 
and  classes  for  prayer,  study  and  mutual  encourage- 
ment, by  which  these  people  had  pastoral  care  under 
the  eye  of  chosen  leaders  and  the  tireless  evangelists. 
Soon  chapels  had  to  be  erected,  the  first  one  being  at 
Bristol.  These  were  not  Dissenter  chapels,  but  were 
claimed  by  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  to  be  additions 
to  the  Established  Church  accommodations.  All  his 
life  Wesley  insisted  upon  no  separation  from  the 
Anglican  Church,  but  his  ordaining  men  later  without 
being  himself  a  prelate  meant,  in  the  dictum  of  Chief 
Justice  Mansfield,  such  a  separation. 

Of  the  three,  Whitefield  was  the  most  popular,  elo- 
quent preacher.  He  stirred  the  aristocracy  as  well 
as  the  peasantry.  The  philosophic  Hume  and  the 
cool-blooded  Franklin  were  alike  moved  and  charmed. 
Bolingbroke  and  Pitt  listened  to  his  fiery  sermons. 
Through  all  classes  the  revival  was  going  on.  Gross 
sins  became  less  common,  Sabbath  desecration  and 
drunkenness  lessened.  The  historian  Green  thinks 
that  the  career  of  Pitt,  the  great  victories  of  sea  and 
land,  must  yield  "in  real  importance  to  that  religious 
revolution  which  shortly  before  had  begun  in  Eng- 


346  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

land  by  the  preaching  of  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield." 
William  Pitt  joined  hands  with  Wesley  to  aid  the  ad- 
vance of  the  nation  toward  better  things. 

The  Wesleys  were  sons  of  a  high  church  rector, 
himself  a  son  of  a  dissenting  clergyman.  Their 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  Puritan  minister,  Dr. 
Annesley,  who  in  her  young  years,  deliberately  de- 
cided to  go  with  the  Established  Church.  Having 
been  given  a  thorough  education,  and  being  of  an  in- 
dependent spirit,  she  was  the  wise,  progressive  mother 
of  that  remarkable  family,  for  genius  marked  other 
members  of  it  besides  John  and  Charles.  These  two 
leaders  of  Methodism  could  look  to  their  talented 
mother  as  the  real  founder  of  the  movement,  for  she 
taught  them  in  the  Epworth  parsonage  many  of  the 
traits  of  character  and  spirit  that  distinguished  their 
lives.  She  gave  them  cheer  and  counsel  even  to  her 
death  at  an  extreme  old  age.  It  is  the  old  story  of 
the  mother  making  the  man.  Yet  the  father  of  the 
Wesleys  was  an  able  rector,  a  writer  and  a  poet. 
John,  graduating  from  Christ's  College,  Oxford,  in 
1723,  for  his  fine  scholarship  was  elected  to  a  Fel- 
lowship in  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  in  17&6. 
Crisp  sayings  pointing  to  his  high  purpose  are  pre- 
served in  his  voluminous  journals  and  elsewhere. 
When  urged  to  settle  down  to  the  use  of  his  Fellow- 
ship or  to  take  a  parish,  he  uttered  that  memorable 
saying  which  appears  on  the  memorial  tablet  in  West- 
minster Abbey:  "I  consider  the  whole  world  my 
parish."  His  broad  catholicity  found  expression  in 
this,  "I  desire  to  have  a  league  offensive  and  defensive 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  347 

with  every  soldier  of  Christ."  He  possessed  a  keen 
insight  in  business  matters,  holding  to  three  rules, 
"Gain  all  you  can,  save  all  you  can,  give  all  you  can." 
When  he  had  an  income  of  thirty  pounds  a  year  he 
lived  on  twenty-eight,  giving  away  two  pounds ;  as  his 
income  increased,  he  still  lived  on  twenty-eight  pounds 
a  year  and  gave  the  remainder  away.  When  because 
of  the  wars  taxation  was  heavy,  silver  plate  was 
taxed,  and  the  officer,  thinking  a  man  so  prominent 
as  Wesley  must  have  large  quantities,  demanded  of 
him  a  return  of  his  riches,  Wesley  responded :  "Sir, 
I  have  two  silver  teaspoons  at  London  and  two  at 
Bristol.  This  is  all  the  plate  I  have  at  present  and  I 
shall  not  buy  any  more  while  so  many  around  me  want 
bread." 

Wesley's  great  administrative  ability,  rated  by 
Lord  Macaulay  as  not  inferior  to  that  French  mar- 
vel, Richelieu,  found  full  scope  in  the  evolution  of  the 
new  sect.  The  three  leaders  had  been  ordained  in  the 
Anglican  Church,  but  their  new  evangel  led  most  of 
the  clergy,  from  bishops  down  to  obscure  curates,  to 
oppose  and  persecute.  The  Methodists  were  sub- 
jected to  the  grossest  insults  and  violent  abuse.  To 
guide  a  great  national  revival  to  success  through 
these  obstacles  was  a  herculean  task,  but  it  was  suc- 
cessfully done.  Itinerating  from  London  to  Bristol, 
to  Newcastle,  and  in  time  over  all  Wales,  then  to 
Scotland  and  finally  to  Ireland,  not  in  the  age  of 
transit,  these  three  evangelists  reached  their  societies 
summer  and  winter,  organized  new  ones,  did  pastoral 
work  from  house  to  house,  preached  incessantly,  met 


348  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  classes,  and  sifting  out  the  vicious  and  backslid- 
den, encouraged  the  faithful  and  gathered  in  the 
converts. 

As  the  work  enlarged,  Wesley  saw  the  need  of  con- 
ferences with  his  scattered  workers,  and  so  called  to- 
gether a  few  to  discuss  means  and  doctrines.  Such 
conferences,  increasing  in  size  and  importance,  were 
held  through  his  whole  life.  In  this  way  he  origi- 
nated that  valuable  gathering  of  toilers  which  has  be- 
come a  peculiar  mark  of  Methodism. 

Wesley's  activities  were  beyond  comprehension. 
His  itinerating  over  the  three  kingdoms  for  more  than 
fifty  years  caused  him  to  ride,  mostly  on  horseback, 
more  than  a  quarter  million  miles.  He  read  many 
books  as  he  journeyed  along  and  kept  up  great  lit- 
erary activity  along  with  his  incessant  care  of  the 
societies  and  churches.  He  wrote  notes  on  the  New 
Testament  and  prepared  text-books  for  schools.  He 
projected  and  carried  to  completion  a  Christian  Li- 
brary of  eighty  volumes  in  which  he  selected,  edited, 
and  compressed  the  best  English  writings  in  all  fields 
of  research.  In  later  life  he  founded  the  Arminian 
Magazine,  filling  its  issues  with  valuable  material 
growing  out  of  the  expanding  work.  He  married  at 
forty-eight,  after  two  or  three  disagreeable  love  af- 
fairs, to  find  at  that  advanced  age  he  had  married 
one  not  able  to  sympathize  with  him  in  his  work, 
whether  religious,  intellectual  or  social.  She  became 
jealous  of  his  intimate  correspondence  with  others, 
interrupted  it,  opened  his  letters,  and  is  said  to  have 
proceeded  even  to  personal  violence. 

The  teachings  used  by  these  revivalists  were  simple, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  349 

practical  and  of  the  Bible.     In  a  defense  Wesley  de- 
fined a  Methodist  thus : 


"One  who  has  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  his 
heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  to  him,  who  loves  the 
Lord  his  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all  his  soul, 
and  with  all  his  mind,  and  with  all  his  strength.  He 
rejoices  evermore,  prays  without  ceasing,  and  in  every- 
thing gives  thanks.  His  heart  is  full  of  love  to  all 
mankind,  his  one  desire  of  life  to  do  the  will  of  God. 
He  keeps  God's  commandments,  does  not  fare  sumptu- 
ously, does  not  lay  up  treasures  on  earth,  nor  adorn 
himself  with  costly  apparel,  shuns  vice,  speaks  no  evil 
of  his  neighbor,  but  does  good  to  all  men." 

Penance,  ritualism,  purgatory,  were  by  these 
preachers  consigned  to  limbo.  A  distinctive  teach- 
ing was  that  of  the  Witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
They  urged  that  if  one  was  converted  his  new  rela- 
tion to  the  Heavenly  Father  was  made  known  to  him, 
the  Spirit  bearing  witness  with  his  spirit  that  he  was 
a  child  of  God.  This  rich  doctrine,  in  books  before, 
was  now  first  made  common  to  the  people.  Now  the 
English  masses  learned  that  if  God  pardoned  their 
sins,  he  would  show  that  release  to  them.  This  is 
perhaps  one  of  the  most  distinctive  results  of  the 
Methodist  movement. 

Some  twenty  years  after  the  inception  of  this  re- 
vival the  experience  of  Perfect  Love,  or  Christian 
Perfection,  sprang  up  spontaneously  among  the 
Methodists.  While  not  altogether  new,  it  had  never 
been  brought  to  the  comprehension  of  the  people. 
Wesley  watched  this  movement  with  his  usual  discrim- 


350  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ination,  conferring  with  those  professing  it,  and  di- 
recting its  development.  After  a  time  he  put  forth 
a  pamphlet,  in  which  he  gave  the  statement  concern- 
ing this  enlargement  of  Bible  insight:  "Loving  God 
with  all  our  heart,  mind  and  strength.  This  implies 
that  no  wrong  temper  remains  in  the  soul,  and  that 
all  the  thoughts,  words  and  actions  are  governed  by 
pure  love."  Some  enthusiastically  declared  that 
they  were  perfect  in  all  things,  but  against  this  folly 
Wesley  contended,  claiming  that  one  was  still  liable  to 
ignorance  and  mistakes.  Not  absolute  perfection, 
but  Christian  perfection  was  the  claim.  Not  the  per- 
fection of  Adam  before  his  fall,  or  of  angels,  he 
taught,  but  the  perfection  in  love,  of  fallible  man. 

The  revival  grew.  Everywhere  the  tireless  preach- 
ers went,  their  audiences  gradually  changed  from 
howling  mobs  to  increasing  masses  of  respectful, 
eager  listeners.  One  need  was  to  supply  the  increas- 
ing work  with  preachers.  The  three  leaders,  with 
four  or  five  clergy  sometimes  associated  with  them, 
could  by  no  means  meet  the  demands.  Among  those 
appointed  leaders  of  classes  and  bands  were  found  un- 
educated men  who  had  learned  the  Bible  well  and 
whose  skill  in  teaching  the  way  of  salvation  to  their 
rude  listeners  made  them  marked  men.  From  teach- 
ing those  small  groups,  like  Wesley's  mother  at  Ep- 
worth,  they  soon  found  themselves  waited  upon  by 
much  enlarged  audiences.  Should  the  Methodist 
leaders  set  these  men  to  preaching?  To  do  so  they 
had  no  recent  precedent  or  any  church  authority. 
At  this  time  of  uncertainty  Susanna  Wesley,  so  wise 
and  deep-souled,  wrote  to  her  son  of  Maxfield : 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  351 

"John,  take  care  what  you  do  with  respect  to  that 
young  man,  for  he  is  surely  called  of  God  to  preach  as 
you  are.  Examine  what  have  been  the  fruits  of  his 
preaching." 

Plans  of  preaching  to  the  newly  organized  societies 
were  made,  to  which  these  lay  preachers  were  sent. 
Wesley  was  not  without  historical  instances  in  the  far 
past.  Wyclif  had  sent  out  his  "Poor  Preachers,  men 
of  the  people  to  the  people."  Farther  back  still  the 
Friars  of  the  thirteenth  century  had  done  work  all 
over  England  similar  to  this  now  beginning.  Crude 
was  the  preaching  of  these  laymen,  but  effective  in 
leading  the  people  to  forsake  their  sins  and  alluring 
to  pure,  unselfish  lives.  These  men  under  Wesley's 
direction  studied  hard,  becoming  proficient  in  theol- 
ogy and  other  fields.  The  revival  touched  the  in- 
tellect of  England.  Not  a  few  of  the  lay  preachers 
became  able  pulpit  orators.  John  Nelson,  the  stone 
mason,  thrilled  thousands  with  his  burning  eloquence, 
and  the  converted  saddlemaker,  Samuel  Bradburn, 
rapt  crowds  by  his  preaching. 

The  relation  of  Methodism  to  the  Anglican  Church 
was  a  burning  one,  being  debated  at  the  conferences 
and  elsewhere.  Both  Wesleys  insisted  that  the  Meth- 
odists attend  its  services,  while  their  own  services 
must  be  held  at  hours  different  from  the  Establish- 
ment. For  a  long  time  Whitefield  and  the  Countess 
of  Huntingdon  held  to  the  same  way,  but  before 
Whitefield's  death  had  by  legal  action  put  themselves 
outside  that  church.  The  Methodists  began  to  wish 
to  have  the  Holy  Communion  administered  by  their 


352  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

own  preachers  instead  of  being  compelled  to  go  before 
clergymen  of  questionable  life  for  it.  Wesley,  having 
become  convinced  that  presbyters  and  bishops  were 
of  the  same  ecclesiastical  order,  decided  he  was  as 
truly  entitled  to  ordain  men  as  any  of  the  English 
prelates.  This  opinion  Charles  Wesley  hotly  com- 
bated. But  John,  quietly  taking  the  matter  into  his 
own  hands,  ordained  Dr.  Coke  to  be  superintendent 
of  Methodism  in  America  and  several  others  to  ad- 
minister the  sacrament  in  Scotland  and  in  England. 
It  was  because  of  this  act  that  Lord  Mansfield  de- 
cided that  Wesley  had  severed  himself  from  the  An- 
glican Church.  But  Wesley  did  not  think  so,  deem- 
ing himself  to  the  day  of  his  death  a  dutiful  son  of 
the  mother  church. 

Charles  Wesley,  like  his  older  brother,  was  a  stir- 
ring, popular  preacher,  crowds  waiting  on  his  public 
work.  An  Oxford  graduate,  he  was  earlier  in  the 
Holy  Club  than  John  and  had  been  ordained  by  an 
English  prelate.  He  easily  took  to  the  field  like  his 
fellow  evangelists.  Like  them,  this  finely  strung 
nature  was  compelled  to  meet  mobs,  to  be  stoned,  be- 
fouled, misrepresented.  With  the  others  he  became 
a  tireless  itinerant.  Always  of  the  same  spirit  that 
moved  him  in  the  Holy  Club,  he  visited  the  jails  and 
prisons  throughout  his  whole  life,  his  last  publication 
put  forth  but  three  years  before  his  death  being 
"Prayers  for  Condemned  Malefactors."  Successful 
as  he  was  as  a  preacher,  his  grandest  help  to  the 
revival  must  be  set  down  to  his  hymns.  All  the  lead- 
ers quickly  saw  the  power  in  popular  singing.  The 
poetic  genius  of  the  Wesley  family  found  its  richest 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  353 

fruitage  in  Charles,  though  several  others  were  sim- 
ilarly endowed. 

George  Whitefield  was  easily  the  orator  of  the  new 
religious  life,  although  neither  so  profound  or  execu- 
tive as  Wesley.  Few  men  in  all  the  Christian  church 
have  possessed  such  high  powers  of  public  speaking. 
Of  humble  origin,  he  worked  his  way  through  college, 
was  one  of  the  Holy  Club  at  Oxford,  and  while  very 
young  obtained  ordination.  Soon  the  churches  of 
the  large  cities  and  towns  were  closed  to  his  eloquent 
preaching,  but  already  crowds  began  collecting  when 
it  was  known  that  he  was  to  speak;  hence  he  would 
preach  to  them  wherever  he  could.  Thus  field  preach- 
ing began.  Whitefield  rose  to  sublime  oratory  when 
such  masses  waited  upon  him.  Whitefield  followed 
the  predestination  teachings  of  Calvin,  then  dominant 
in  the  Anglican  Church.  To  this  dark  doctrine  Wes- 
ley objected,  following  rather  the  teachings  of  the 
Dutch  theologian,  Arminius,  that  man  is  free,  not 
under  the  law  of  necessity,  and  that  salvation  is  fully 
offered  to  all.  Both  Wesley  and  Whitefield  being 
deep-souled  Englishmen,  these  differences  of  doctrine 
could  not  fail  to  tax  their  love  for  each  other.  Still 
in  Christian  fellowship  each  went  on  his  chosen  way. 
Up  and  down  England  Whitefield  went,  arousing  the 
wildest  enthusiasm.  England  was  too  small  for  his 
activities,  so  he  passed  to  Scotland  and  Ireland  and 
across  the  sea  to  America,  and  everywhere  masses 
came  to  hearken  and  to  amend  their  ways. 

When  soliciting  funds  for  an  orphan  asylum 
which  he  founded  in  Georgia  his  persuasive  powers 
were  curiously  shown.  The  close-fisted  Franklin 


354  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

emptied  his  pockets,  regretting  he  had  no  more  to 
give.  The  nobility  of  England  poured  out  golden 
sovereigns.  On  one  such  occasion  the  copper  coins 
contributed  by  the  poor  had  to  be  carried  away  by 
the  half-bushel.  If  fashionable  crowds  waited  upon 
him,  however,  mobs  pelted  him  with  rotten  eggs, 
stones,  dead  cats,  and  sometimes  tried  to  drown  his 
voice  with  drums  and  other  noise.  In  connection  with 
the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  and  others  he  founded 
the  sect  of  Calvinistic  Methodism,  mostly  in  Wales. 
This  stream,  alongside  that  distinctly  Arminian,  pos- 
sibly gave  larger  success  to  the  whole  movement. 
Whitefield  was  in  more  sympathetic  relations  with  the 
nonconformist  bodies  than  the  Wesleys.  In  his 
earlier  labors  Wesley  was  too  close  a  churchman  to 
fraternize  much  with  them.  In  1770  Whitefield  died 
of  exhaustion  at  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  his 
bones  now  lying  under  the  pulpit  of  the  Federal  Street 
Church.  At  his  death  a  race  mourned  his  passing. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  all  the 
denominations  in  England  needed  the  vivifying  shock 
of  the  Methodist  movement.  Still  a  few  names  shine 
above  the  spiritual  horizon.  Isaac  Watts,  an  Inde- 
pendent minister  of  London,  is  remembered  for  his 
rich,  strong  hymns.  It  is  said  that  when  a  young 
minister  he  complained  to  a  meeting  of  his  fellow 
preachers  the  lack  of  good  hymns.  The  retort  was 
made,  "Give  us  something  bettej,  young  man."  He 
did.  Watts  is  justly  distinguished  as  the  father  of 
modern  hymnology.  His  life,  extending  to  near  the 
middle  of  the  century,  was  one  of  physical  suffering, 
sometimes  of  mental  anguish,  but  through  it  all  pro- 
lific of  good  works.  He  divided  that  century  of 
hymn-writing  with  Charles  Wesley,  and  so  well  did 
each  of  these  masters  work  that  their  spiritual  songs 
still  outnumber  in  the  various  church  hymnals  those  of 
any  other  author.  Watts,  declared  by  Montgomery 
to  be  the  inventor  of  hymns  in  the  English  tongue, 
doubtless  surpasses  in  sublimity  of  thought  and  sweep 
of  wide  vision  his  compeer,  who  in  his  turn  surpasses 
Watts  in  expressing  God's  love  to  fallen  man.  That 
Pantheon  of  English  authors,  Westminster  Abbey, 
justly  has  a  monument  to  this  great  Dissenter.  His 
hymns  express  many  shades  of  devotion. 

"From  all  that  dwell  below  the  skies" 

"Great   God   attend   while   Zion  sings" 
355 


356  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

"Sweet  is  the  work,  my  God,  my  King" 

"Am  I  a  soldier  of  the  cross" 
"Joy  to  the  world,  the  Lord  is  come" 

"Welcome,  sweet  day  of  rest" 

"Salvation,  O  the  joyful  sound" 

"Show  pity,  Lord,  O  Lord,  forgive" 

"Alas  and  did  my  Savior  bleed" 

"Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun" 

"The  heavens  declare  thy  glory,  Lord" 

"Why  do  we  mourn  departing  friends" 

"There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight" 

Another  great  hymn  writer,  Philip  Doddridge,  was 
contemporary  with  Watts  and  like  him  an  Independ- 
ent minister.  Indeed,  nearly  all  the  soul  lyrics  of 
that  century  were  composed  by  men  in  the  dissenting 
sects.  As  a  hymn  writer  Doddridge  should  be  put  in 
a  lower  place  than  Watts  or  Charles  Wesley,  but  his 
work  will  live.  He  was  instrumental  in  establish- 
ing an  academy  for  the  education  of  dissenting  minis- 
ters, being  tutor  in  that  at  the  same  time  that  he  was 
pastor  of  a  large  church  at  Northampton.  His 
double  labors  wore  him  out  before  his  time  and 
brought  death  at  the  age  of  forty-nine.  His  hymns, 
usually  composed  upon  some  Scripture  passage,  were 
sung  by  his  congregation  at  the  time  of  his  delivering 
the  sermon  on  that  text.  Like  others  of  that  period 
his  hymns  cover  many  phases  of  the  spiritual  life. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  357 

"How  gentle  God's  commands" 

"I'll  drop  my  burden  at  his  feet" 

"Hark  the  glad  sound!     The  Savior  comes" 

"Grace !     'Tis    a    charming   sound" 

"O  happy  day  that  fixed  my  choice" 

"Awake,  my  soul,  stretch  every  nerve" 

For  a  decade  of  years  Charles  Wesley  was  writing 
hymns  contemporary  with  Watts  and  Doddridge. 
Watts  was  a  hearty  admirer  of  the  young  poet,  say- 
ing of  "Wrestling  Jacob"  that  it  was  worth  all  the 
verses  that  he  himself  had  written.  He  was  im- 
mensely prolific,  his  own  poems  and  those  of  his 
brother  John,  who  excelled  in  the  translation  of  Ger- 
man and  Latin  hymns,  being  compiled  in  thirteen 
volumes.  Besides  these  printed  ones  it  is  said  that 
two  thousand  still  exist  in  manuscript,  Charles  having 
written  six  thousand  in  all.  Out  of  those  printed, 
time  has  sifted  hundreds  of  the  best,  which  as  helps 
to  many  shades  of  devotion,  appear  destined  to  live  on 
in  the  coming  centuries.  His  hymns  were  composed 
in  all  sorts  of  places  and  under  every  imaginable  con- 
dition of  work  and  impulse  of  brain  and  heart.  Of 
that  most  popular  hymn,  "Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul," 
it  is  commonly  said  that  he  composed  it  in  a  spring 
house,  when  hiding  with  his  brother  from  a  mob. 
More  probable  is  the  suggestion  that  a  stormy  experi- 
ence on  the  Atlantic  when  going  to  Georgia  with  Gen- 
eral Oglethorpe  gave  him  the  thought.  Being  set  to 
easy  popular  music,  another  rich  fact  of  the  evan- 


358  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

gelical  renascence,  the  hymns  were  sung  by  the  great 
audiences  waiting  on  the  evangelist  as  well  as  at  fire- 
sides and  in  humble  chapels.  They  are  still  sung,  like 
those  of  Watts,  as  widely  as  goes  the  English  tongue. 
The  race  can  never  let  such  soul  songs  as  these  perish : 

"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul" 

"O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing" 

"Depth  of  mercy!     Can  there  be" 

"Father,  I  stretch  my  hands  to  thee" 

"Arise,  my  soul,  arise" 

"A  charge  to  keep  I  have" 

"Come,  O  thou  Traveler  unknown" 

"Servant  of  God,  well  done" 

The  early  part  of  the  century  saw  several  books  of 
sacred  songs  issued  and  used.  Nonconformists  and 
Anglicans  had  before  clung  closely  to  the  use  of 
Psalms  for  devotional  singing,  various  renderings  of 
these  having  been  given  out.  Now  there  came  a 
gradual  use  of  other  songs.  Some  of  the  poems  of 
one  Norris  were  set  to  music  and  used  so  much  that  in 
1730  a  tenth  edition  was  demanded,  giving  a  pleasant 
glimpse  of  the  people's  devotions 

In  1700  Bishop  Ken,  a  man  of  sweetest  spirit,  one 
of  the  Non jurors,  gave  to  the  world  the  "Evening 
Hymn"  and  "Morning  Hymn": 

"Glory  to  thee,  my  God,  this  night" 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  359 

"Awake,  my  soul,  and  with  the  sun" 

Anne  Stcele,  the  daughter  of  a  Baptist  minister, 
wrote  many  hymns,  some  of  which  still  lend  their  com- 
fort: 

"Come  ye  that  love  the  Savior's  name" 
"Father,  whate'er  of  earthly  bliss" 

Out  of  Addison's  Spectator  have  been  transferred 
to  the  hymn  books  ever  since  his  time  several  of  his 
exquisitely  expressed  hymns : 

"When  all  thy  mercies,  O  my  God" 
"The  spacious  firmament  on  high" 

Later  in  the  century,  after  the  revival  was  in  full 
sweep,  a  valuable  issue  of  hymns  then  widely  sung 
and  still  used  in  part,  came  out  under  the  name  of 
Olney  Hmyns,  thus  named  because  most  were  written 
on  the  Olney  parish.  Its  minister  was  John  Newton, 
whose  loyalty  to  Christ,  after  conversion  from  a  very 
vicious  life,  was  of  a  piece  with  his  former  wickedness. 
Cowper  and  Newton  made  the  Olney  Hymns  im- 
mortal. The  following  popular  and  valuable  hymns 
are  from  that  collection : 

"God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way" 
"There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood" 

"O  for  a  closer  walk  with  God" 
"Glorious  things  of  thee  are  spoken" 


360  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Samuel  Stennett,  a  dissenting  minister  in  London, 
also  wrote  hymns  at  that  time  which  have  been  and 
are  widely  sung. 

"Majestic  sweetness  sits  enthroned" 
"On  Jordan's  stormy  banks  I  stand" 

Other  great  hymns  were  composed  during  that 
period,  single  ones  of  precious  worth  enough  to  keep 
the  author's  memory  immortal  and  to  carry  choice 
benefactions  down  the  ages.  Such  was  Pope's  ode, 
"The  Dying  Christian  to  His  Soul,"  and  Thomas 
Oliver's  "God  of  Abraham,"  which  was  set  to  music 
and  sung  by  the  Jews  in  London. 

Edward  Perronet,  a  friend  of  the  Wesleys  and  a 
dissenting  minister,  will  never  be  forgotten  for  having 
given  to  mankind  "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus' 
name." 

Augustus  Toplady,  a  contemporary  but  an  op- 
ponent of  the  Wesleys,  will  live  in  men's  gratitude  for 
one  hymn, — "Rock  of  Ages  Cleft  for  Me." 

The  hymns  composed  and  popularly  sung  in 
any  epoch  deeply  affect  the  social,  intellectual 
and  moral  life,  as  well  as  politics  and  religion. 
History  has  instances  of  the  power  of  ballads 
and  patriotic  songs  to  revive  and  inspire,  and 
here  in  the  eighteenth  century  can  easily  be  seen 
the  elevating  power  of  popular,  widely  sung 
spiritual  songs.  The  masses  were  touched  with  the 
sense  of  fellowship,  forsook  their  vices,  and  learned 
spiritual  truths  of  high  value.  Besides  reaching  the 
masses  their  priceless  worth  has  enriched  religion  and 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  361 

added  to  the  value  and  perpetuation  of  high  liter- 
ature. 

The  church  party,  deeming  all  dissent  to  harbor 
disloyalty,  explains  the  opposition  of  the  clergy,  the 
opinion  of  statesmen,  and  the  brutality  of  the  mobs. 
Doubtless  the  union  of  church  and  state  at  that  time 
gave  a  sacred  sanction  of  the  laws,  in  this  way  being 
beneficial  to  the  nation.  The  worth  of  a  regular  sys- 
tem of  parishes  covering,  at  least  in  theory,  the  whole 
land,  each  one  supplied  with  an  educated  man  as  rec- 
tor or  curate  to  direct  the  worship  of  so  large  a 
share  of  the  people,  to  baptize,  marry  and  bury  them, 
could  not  fail  of  being  very  great.  Formally,  at 
least,  the  religious  life  found  constant  expression. 
Inscribed  over  the  door  of  the  Bank  of  England  is 
"The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof." 
The  marble  floor  of  St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool,  has 
in  the  mosaics  in  Latin,  "From  God  We  Received  all 
this  Health  and  Greatness." 

By  the  middle  of  the  century  the  evangelical  move- 
ment in  the  Established  Church  was  fairly  started. 
Of  course  the  foremost  influence  in  this  was  the 
Methodist  movement.  In  addition  a  few  intense 
clergymen,  deploring  the  general  laxity  of  religion 
everywhere,  determined  to  do  all  they  could  to  remedy 
the  sad  condition.  Advance  and  reform  were  in  the 
air.  John  Fletcher  by  his  brilliancy  as  a  writer 
.  and  debater,  became  the  able  defender  of  Wesley's 
teachings.  Fletcher's  checks  to  Antinomianism  had 
possibly  more  to  do  in  relegating  Calvin's  monstrous 
tenets  to  the  dust  heap  than  any  other  writings  ever 
produced.  Associated  with  the  evangelical  move- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ment  were  prominent  people,  William  Wilberforce  in 
his  magnificent  contention  with  human  slavery,  Sir 
Richard  Hill,  Lady  Huntingdon  and  others  of 
nobility  and  wealth.  Lord  Dartmouth,  who  founded 
a  great  college  in  the  colonies,  was  an  out-and-out 
Methodist,  working  with  all  the  promoters  of  the  for- 
ward movement.  Hannah  More  and  later  Elizabeth 
Fry,  each  in  her  own  sphere  of  kindly  deeds,  were 
fellow  workers  with  the  noble  people  for  the  good 
of  Englishmen.  Lecky  says  of  the  Evangelicals: 

"They  infused  into  the  English  Church  a  new  fire 
and  passion  of  devotion,  kindled  a  fervent  spirit  of 
philanthropy,  raised  the  standard  of  clerical  duty  and 
completely  altered  the  whole  tone  and  tendency  of  the 
preaching  of  the  ministers.  Before  the  close  of  the 
century  the  evangelical  movement  had  become  the  al- 
most undisputed  center  of  religious  activity  in  England, 
and  it  continued  so  until  the  rise  of  the  Tractarian  move- 
ment of  1833." 

In  spite  of  this  spirit  many  of  the  parishes  and 
dioceses  were  sadly  neglected.  May  says  of  the 
clergy  in  his  "Constitutional  History": 

"They  farmed,  shot  the  squire's  partridges,  drank 
port  wine,  played  cards,  but  did  little  to  search  out  the 
needs  of  their  flocks." 

One  church  historian  says: 

"The  spiritual  courts  were  the  curse  of  the  poor,  the 
j  est  of  the  rich,  and  the  abhorrence  of  the  wise  and  good 
even  among  the  clergy  themselves." 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  363 

Owing  to  the  rapid  increase  of  population  at  this 
time,  a  problem  was  presented  which  the  national 
church  was  ill  prepared  to  meet.  The  use  of  ma- 
chinery in  manufactures  drew  into  the  industrial 
centers  crowds  of  workmen  and  their  families  and  it 
was  soon  found  impossible  to  offer  to  these  masses 
church  accommodations.  The  Methodists  and  Non- 
conformists, by  quickly  building  cheap  meeting- 
houses, were  supplying  the  need  in  part,  these  manu- 
facturing towns  becoming  centers  of  dissent  and 
social  unrest.  Soon  half  the  parishes  besides  their 
Anglican  Church  had  one  or  more  dissenting  chapels. 
Nor  were  the  universities  where  the  higher  education 
of  the  nation  centered,  a  whit  above  the  condition 
of  the  ruling  classes.  Neglect  of  teaching  until  the 
professors  gave  up  the  pretense  of  doing  so,  neglect 
of  study  and  examinations,  marked  the  life  of  both 
great  schools.  Gibbon  declared  that  his  time  in 
college  was  the  most  unprofitable  of  his  life,  finding 
there  ignorance,  vice,  idleness  and  infidelity. 

Even  before  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  had  en- 
tered upon  their  revival  successes  a  similar  revival 
had  begun  in  Wales.  Griffith  Jones,  a  clergyman  of 
the  Established  Church,  aroused  by  the  needs  of  the 
masses,  preaching  widely,  called  the  people,  like 
another  John  the  Baptist  to  repentance  and  a  new 
life.  Of  course  he  broke  the  rules  of  decorum  and 
good  church  discipline,  for  which  he  was  repeatedly 
tried  before  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  But  nothing 
could  stop  him.  One  of  his  methods  to  overcome 
the  gross  ignorance  of  the  people  was  to  found 
circulating  schools,  the  schoolmasters  going  like  itin- 


364  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

erants  from  place  to  place,  holding  the  schools  for 
a  few  weeks  and  then  passing  on.     In  these  schools, 
besides  the  rudiments,  the  people  were  taught  to  read 
the  Bible  in  Welsh,  Bibles  for  this  purpose  being  sup- 
plied by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Christian 
Knowledge.     In  a  short  time  Jones  had  hundreds  of 
schools     and    thousands     of     pupils,      To     supply 
teachers  he  opened  a  normal  school  into  which  only 
religious  persons  were  admitted.     At  his  death,  1761, 
he  left  no  less  than  3495  schools  with  150,000  pupils. 
Not  long  after  this  movement  began,  another  man, 
Howell  Harris,  became  associated  with  Jones  in  his 
revival  work.     Harris  had  been  at  Oxford,  but  left 
in  disgust  and,  layman  as  he  was,  began  preaching 
all    over    Wales    justification    by    faith,    declaring 
against  the  evils  present,  raising  great  excitement 
and    facing   murderous    mobs.     As    the    Methodists 
came  into  the  principality  they  encouraged  and  aided 
these  men,  while  some  noble-spirited  Anglican  min- 
isters   also    helped   them.     Daniel   Rowland's    name 
shines  among  this  class  of  helpers.     People  would  go 
sixty  or  a  hundred  miles  to  hear  him  preach.     Yet 
with  all  the  good  he  did  he  was  later  ejected  from 
the  Anglican  ministry.     In  a  few  years  the  revival 
took   organized   form   in   the   Calvinistic   Methodist 
Church  there,  of  which  he  was  made  superintendent. 
Whitefield  and  the  Countess  Huntingdon  were  active 
and   efficient   in   this   organization.     Nonconformity 
soon  stood  ahead  of  other  denominations  in  Wales. 
In  Scotland  as  well  as  in  Wales  and  England  a 
revival    arose    spontaneously    among   workers.     Be- 
fore the  great  revivalists  of  England  visited  Scot- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  365 

land  some  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers  were  aroused, 
going  over  the  country  as  heralds  of  the  new  evangel. 
Among  others  were  the  two  Erskine  brothers  and  a 
minister  named  Robe.  People  fell  to  the  earth  in 
startling  convulsions,  screaming,  weeping,  praying. 
Usually  when  these  phenomena  ended  it  was  to  find 
the  subjects  happy  arid  praising  God,  and  hearty 
service  for  God  afterwards  marked  them. 

The  revival  marked  an  era  in  the  religious  life  of 
Scotland.  Family  and  church  worship  was  set  up, 
the  young  were  led  to  earnestness  of  action  and  vice 
lessened.  But  the  English  revivalists  were  not 
heartily  received,  John  Wesley  complaining  in  his 
journal  of  the  coldness  of  his  reception  by  both 
ministers  and  people.  Only  a  few  Methodist  socie- 
ties were  formed  in  Scotland.  Still  respectful  crowds 
attended  the  field-preaching  of  Whitefield.  One 
evening  he  preached  to  thousands  till  eleven  o'clock, 
at  another  time  the  masses  listening  to  him  stayed 
an  hour  past  midnight.  In  such  gatherings  prayer 
and  praise  could  be  heard  in  all  parts  of  the  fields. 

The  religious  condition  of  Ireland  during  the  lat- 
ter half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  while  presenting 
proofs  of  progress,  was  most  deplorable.  The  Estab- 
lishment was  the  only  church  recognized  by  law.  A 
pamphlet  written  in  1760  said  that  sixteen  hundred 
of  its  churches  were  in  ruins,  six  hundred  others 
standing  ready  to  fall,  and  there  were  only  five  hun- 
dred fifty  Anglican  clergy  in  Ireland,  these  being 
mostly  curates  with  pay  at  forty  pounds  a  year. 
The  Methodists  visited  the  island  and  introduced 
more  liberal  sentiments.  The  Moravians  and  Pala- 


366  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

tines  from  the  continent  also  had  busy  people  and 
thoughtful  preaching  in  their  colonies.  A  wider 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  general  spirit  of  toler- 
ance were  effectively  reducing  objections  to  religious 
rights.  Several  converted  Irishmen  were  teaching 
and  preaching  in  the  native  tongue,  Graham  and 
Ouseley  being  able  to  do  this  work.  One  itinerant, 
John  McBurney,  was  set  upon  by  the  mob,  beaten, 
trampled  under  foot  and  so  injured  that  in  a  few 
days  he  died.  He  was  the  first  Methodist  martyr. 
England's  need  of  soldiers  for  the  American  War  of 
Independence  and  the  French  Revolution  moved  the 
king  and  statesmen  to  more  liberal  motives.  Laws 
were  neglected  and  penalties  winked  at.  The  govern- 
ment, having  created  a  Catholic  diocese  at  Quebec 
and  mitigated  greatly  the  laws  against  English 
Catholics,  was  disposed,  as  the  years  passed,  to  grant 
relief  to  the  Irish  Catholics. 

As  the  century  passed  toward  its  close  a  patriotic 
movement  was  joined  with  the  religious.  To  guard 
the  country  from  French  invasion  volunteer  corps 
were  formed;  these,  when  armed  and  drilled,  con- 
veyed to  the  Irish  a  sense  of  their  power,  and  in 
1782  demands  were  made  by  delegates  from  these 
armed  men  for  civil  freedom,  the  rights  of  private 
judgment  in  religion  were  urged,  and  the  uplift  of 
oppressive  laws  from  the  Catholics  commended. 
Wolfe  Tone,  in  1791,  founded  the  Society  of  United 
Irishmen  composed  of  both  Catholics  and  Protestants, 
aiming  among  other  things  at  equal  representation 
in  the  Irish  Parliament.  A  few  years  later  a  Relief 
Bill  gave  certain  franchises  permitting  Catholics  to 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  367 

bear  arms,  granting  freedom  in  property  and  allow- 
ing the  Catholic  youth  to  attend  colleges.  In  Ulster 
province  the  Protestants  formed  the  Orangemen's 
Associations  to  expel  Catholics,  engendering  intense, 
lasting  hatred  and  causing  much  suffering.  When 
in  1800  union  was  made  with  Great  Britain,  and  the 
Irish  by  that  union  became  citizens  of  that  country, 
a  vast  gain  in  privileges  was  obtained. 

The  soul  hunger  of  the  people  as  the  decades  came 
and  went  was  being  met  by  a  great  variety  of  means. 
The  leaders  of  the  Methodist  movement  exerted  a 
profound  influence  everywhere  over  the  three  nations. 
Nonconformists  grew  more  intense.  The  evangelical 
party  in  the  Anglican  Church  also  crowded  for  bet- 
ter conditions.  The  reflex  influence  upon  the 
mother  country  of  the  colonies  in  America  in  their 
tremendous  struggle  for  independence  and  in  the 
great  liberal  commonwealth  they  established,  holding 
so  many  things  free  which  the  advanced  thought  of 
England  had  longed  for, — free  speech,  free  press,  free 
churches,  full  franchise,  and  many  other  rights, — 
profoundly  affected  for  better  things  still  the  home 
section  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  When  George 
Third  came  to  the  throne  in  1760  his  deep  piety, 
fidelity  to  his  wife,  opposition  to  immorality,  and 
constant  attendance  upon  religious  services  stood 
in  hopeful  contrast  to  the  morals  of  his  father.  He 
was  resigned  under  misfortunes,  brave,  sympathetic 
with  the  revival  of  religion,  and  pleased  with  the  de- 
velopment of  Sunday  Schools.  He  encouraged  John 
Howard  in  prison  reform.  It  is  believed  that  the 
great  unrest  caused  in  England  by  the  French  Revo- 


368  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

lution  and  by  the  writings  of  Paine  and  others  was 
allayed  by  the  religious  revival.  In  1779  a  Relief 
Bill  was  passed,  by  which  dissenting  ministers  and 
students  at  the  universities  need  not  subscribe  to  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles,  only  declare  themselves  Prot- 
estants and  Christians,  believers  in  both  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  By  this  act  Protestant  Dis- 
senters in  Ireland  were  also  relieved. 

Among  the  fruits  of  the  revival  and  evangelical 
spirit  were  the  labors  of  Henry  Thornton,  who  in 
his  elegant  home  at  Clapham  gathered  reformers  and 
philanthropists,  making  up  what  has  since  been 
known  as  the  Clapham  sect.  In  these  gatherings 
were  discussed  slavery,  peace,  toleration,  and  kin- 
dred matters  likely  to  be  brought  forward  at  a 
time  of  such  spiritual  renascence.  Hamilton  took 
these  matters  into  Parliament.  Ministers  of  the 
Established  Church  and  Dissenters  worked  together 
at  Clapham.  Here  Wilberforce  and  Clarkson  gained 
cheer  and  assistance  in  their  long  struggle  against 
the  slave  trade.  Here  Granville  Sharpe  was  pre- 
pared to  become  president  of  the  first  Bible  Society. 
Their  organ,  The  Christian  Observer,  was  edited  by 
Zachary  Macaulay.  Missions  were  in  their  plans, 
Henry  Martyn  working  with  John  Venn  in  project- 
ing the  Church  Missionary  Society.  To  preach  to 
this  gathering  Whitefield  was  often  called,  as  was 
also  John  Wesley,  whose  great  Catholic  spirit  and 
broad  vision  were  of  value  and  encouragement. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

The  Quakers  had  long  been  persistent  opposers 
of  the  unspeakable  slave  trade,  but  money  being  in 
its  continuance,  state  and  society  and  church  were 
all  deaf  to  their  appeals.  As  early  as  1727  they 
entered  the  conflict,  never  ceasing  through  the 
decades.  In  1774  David  Hartley  offered  a  bill 
in  the  Commons  that  the  slave  trade  was  con- 
trary to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  rights  of 
man,  but  it  was  easily  defeated.  The  same  year 
John  Wesley  published  his  tract,  "Thoughts  on 
Slavery,"  giving  to  the  world  the  famous  saying, 
"It  is  the  sum  of  all  villainies."  Pitt  and  Wesley 
sustained  Wilberforce  in  his  magnificent  contention. 
The  horrible  insurrection  of  the  negroes  in  San 
Domingo  scared  some  of  the  friends  of  the  movement. 
The  acquisition  of  England  of  the  West  India  Is- 
lands led  to  great  increase  of  the  lucrative  trade. 
Protests  seemed  vain.  More  than  fifty  thousand 
negroes  a  year  were  carried  to  the  West  Indies, 
the  climax  being  reached  in  1786  when  ninety-seven 
thousand  of  the  poor  wretches  were  transported  by 
Christian  Englishmen  to  the  atrocities  of  slavery. 
Such  injustice  began  opening  the  eyes  of  England. 

A  society  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  was 
organized  in  London  in  1787,  at  first  having  but 
twelve  members;  among  them  appear  the  names  of 
Granville  Sharp,  Wilberforce,  Clarkson  and  Zachary 
Macaulay.  In  1804  Wilberforce  wanted  to  bring 

369 


370  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

in  a  bill  to  put  an  end  to  the  slave  trade,  to  which 
Pitt  objected,  promising  instead  a  royal  proclama- 
tion forbidding  English  ships  to  bring  slaves  to  the 
Dutch  colonies,  but  this  order  did  not  come  out.  As 
Fox  came  into  power  he  made  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  one  of  the  foremost  pledges  of  his  policy. 
Not  until  the  Granville  ministry  in  1807  was  the 
measure  carried  forbidding  British  vessels,  seamen 
or  capital  to  be  used  in  the  trade. 

Another  product  of  the  religious  revival  was  the 
broad  purpose  and  plans  to  make  life  more  com- 
fortable and  elevating  to  the  lower  classes  of  Great 
Britain.  The  inventions  of  Arkwright,  Compton 
and  others  setting  in  motion  the  great  streams  of 
modern  manufacturing,  the  life  in  towns,  and  the 
new  conditions  in  many  ways  caused  much  distress. 
Noble  philanthropists,  however,  came  forth  to  meet 
these  conditions.  A  very  angel  of  mercy  in  this 
work  was  Hannah  More,  who  was  led  into  it  by 
Wilberforce.  On  moving  to  her  new  country  home 
a  few  miles  from  Bristol  in  Gloucester,  she  found  the 
parishes  round  about  were  almost  entirely  neglected 
and  the  people  little  better  than  pagans.  She  set 
up  schools  to  teach  the  ignorant,  but  for  such  a 
deed  was  prosecuted  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 
Persisting,  she  gathered  in  seven  years  more  than 
sixteen  hundred  pupils  into  her  schools,  so  chang- 
ing the  people  by  her  humane  ministries  that  the 
assizes,  before  crowded  with  cases,  now  had  no  crimes 
to  punish.  Her  works  and  writings  attracted  at- 
tention at  London  where  she  was  called  to  visit, 
making  the  acquaintance  and  winning  the  sympathy 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  371 

of  Walpole,  Dr.  Johnson  and  other  notables.  Her 
deeds  of  kindness  were  copied  widely  and  multitudes 
of  poor  people  felt  the  uplift  given. 

John  Howard's  toils  in  prison  reform  were  of  a 
piece  for  human  good  with  those  of  Hannah  More. 
Before  his  work  the  condition  of  England's  prisons 
was  vile  beyond  comprehension.  In  1773,  having 
been  made  High  Sheriff  of  Bedfordshire,  he  at  once 
took  steps  to  reform  the  prisons  of  his  own  county, 
and  found  their  condition  most  astounding.  At- 
tention called  to  these  terrible  things,  an  investiga- 
tion was  ordered  by  Parliament,  and  Howard's  re- 
port contained  masses  of  the  most  horrible  facts. 
Howard  died  from  exposure  in  Russian  prisons 
in  1790,  but  the  reform  did  not  cease.  Out 
of  it  have  come  the  admirable  condition  of 
jails  and  prisons,  the  strict  attention  paid  to 
the  physical  and  moral  condition  of  the  inmates,  the 
deference  given  their  spiritual  claims,  together  with 
the  great  efforts  made  to  reform  them. 

The  worth  of  the  evangelical  revival  through  those 
decades  cannot  be  computed.  When  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  people  were  shot  through  and  through  with 
the  teachings  of  Christianity  that  progress  would 
be  highest  and  most  hopeful.  The  supreme  value 
of  institutions  is  fully  reached  when  it  applies  to  all 
the  people.  In  1779  mass  meetings  were  held  giving 
expression  to  public  opinion  and  thought  similar  to 
those  held  in  the  fiery  time  of  Cromwell.  One  of 
the  petitions  was  that  the  American  War  be  stopped. 
Later  the  people  were  asking  for  reform  in  Parlia- 
lent  and  for  representatives  from  the  counties  and 


372  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

from  the  great  cities,  London  and  others.  Burke 
saw  there  was  "a  revolution  in  sentiment,  manners 
and  moral  aspirations,"  but  was  wrong  in  thinking 
they  were  all  for  the  worse.  Better  things  were 
coming  into  sight.  So  strong  did  the  people  become 
in  national  affairs  that  Pitt  found  his  real  strength 
lay  with  them.  The  attempts  of  George  Third  to 
establish  supreme  dominance  similar  to  that  of  the 
Stuarts  were  dissipated  by  this  power  of  the  people. 

During  the  American  War  the  feeling  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  man  arose  more  fully  than  before, 
for  in  its  clearing  vision  the  Christian  consciousness 
was  coalescing  with  deeper  political  insight.  This 
high  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  had  never,  in 
a  country  of  classes  and  aristocracy  been  developed, 
its  awakening  now  being  a  boon  to  all.  It  lighted 
the  way  for  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  in  which 
that  unscrupulous  East  Indian  governor  and  op- 
pressor was  shown  up  by  the  forensic  genius  of  Ed- 
mund Burke.  It  was  Burke's  determination  and  the 
demand  of  Englishmen  that  the  same  justice  be 
given  to  the  poor  Hindu  as  was  accorded  by  law  to 
the  poor  Englishman.  One  result  of  that  trial  was 
to  assure  British  protection  to  its  remotest  subject 
in  all  parts  of  its  mighty  empire.  Fox  taught 
British  legislators  that  the  colonies,  to  be  best  re- 
tained as  parts  of  the  empire,  must  be  mostly  left 
to  govern  themselves.  Out  of  this  broad  truth  has 
come,  with  other  blessings,  that  of  religious  liberty 
in  those  colonies,  growing  to  greatness  ever  since 
in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

Starting  in  this  epoch  on  the  course  which  ever 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  373 

since  has  been  of  inestimable  worth  to  humanity,  was 
the  Sunday  School.  Robert  Raikes  is  usually 
credited  with  originating  this  movement  in  1784?, 
but  it  is  now  known  that  he  followed  suggestions  of 
what  had  been  already  begun.  Fourteen  years  be- 
fore a  Miss  Ball  of  High  Wy combe  had  organized 
a  Sunday  School,  writing  thus  to  Wesley,  "The 
children  meet  twice  a  week  every  Sunday  and  Mon- 
day." That  was  in  1770.  Even  before  that  date 
Sunday  Schools  were  begun  in  America.  Another 
Methodist  woman  suggested  to  Raikes  that  schools 
could  be  set  up  on  Sunday  to  teach  the  children  of 
their  city  who  were  growing  up  in  ignorance  and 
vice.  She  herself  walked  to  the  parish  church  at 
the  head  of  the  motley  mass  of  children  they  had 
collected.  Publicity  being  given  to  this  new  form 
of  work,  it  was  at  once  caught  up  in  many  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  Within  two  years  of  the  inception 
of  the  work  Great  Britain  had  two  hundred  schools 
with  two  hundred  thousand  Sunday  School  pupils. 
All  the  sects  took  up  the  plan,  organizing  schools 
every  part  of  the  country.  Indeed  Sunday 
Schools  became  an  established  way  of  teaching  the 
lible  in  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world,  a  stream 
From  that  fountain  ever  enlarging  to  the  present 
time.  At  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century 
lere  were  reported  at  the  World's  Sunday  School 
Convention  at  Jerusalem  more  than  twenty-three 
millions  of  persons  in  these  Sunday  Schools  of 
Protestantism. 

The  press  helped  reform.     It  made  books  com- 
mon  and   cheap.     Women,   forming  Blue   Stocking 


374  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Clubs,  took  deeper  interest  in  literary  matters,  aid- 
ing greatly  in  refining  literature  and  helping  for- 
ward religion  as  well  as  gaining  culture  for  them- 
selves. There  was  a  discouraging  lack  of  libraries. 
The  revivalists  made  constant  use  of  the  press,  not 
alone  in  controversy,  but  for  the  direct  good  of  the 
masses.  Wesley's  pen  was  kept  hot  writing  tracts, 
pamphlets,  books,  notes  on  the  Gospels,  and  other 
publications  designed  for  the  use  of  the  people 
reached  by  him  and  his  itinerants. 

In  reading  of  modern  missions  one  sees  a  revival 
of  the  spirit  actuating  the  tireless  toilers  in  that 
field  through  the  earlier  centuries  of  Christianity, 
as  well  as  those  in  medieval  centuries.  Among 
modern  missionaries  has  been  shown  a  courage  sur- 
passing that  of  warriors  on  the  field  of  blood,  and 
a  supreme  faith  in  the  power  of  truth  to  lift  up  men 
and  women  and  meet  the  cry  of  the  human  soul. 
The  two  societies  already  organized  were  limited  in 
means,  workers  and  enthusiasm,  but  through  the 
century  did  noble  work  for  Wales  and  the  Danish 
Mission  in  Tranguebar.  By  mutual  consent  the 
Christian  Knowledge  Society  pushed  its  plans  east- 
ward, while  the  Propagation  Society  pushed  its  plans 
westward.  Especially  did  the  latter  work  in  terri- 
tory which  is  now  the  United  States.  Indian  tribes, 
the  Iroquois  and  others,  were  reached  with  the  gos- 
pel, and  spiritual  aid  was  given  to  the  colonists,  the 
Quakers,  Congregationalists  and  negroes.  In  North 
Carolina  Rev.  Clement  Hall,  supported  by  this 
society  on  thirty  pounds  a  year,  went  among  the 
destitute  pioneers,  having  traveled  in  eight  years,  it 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  375 

is  said,  fourteen  thousand  miles,  preached  eight  hun- 
dred times  and  baptized  six  thousand  people.  Bishop 
Berkley  and  others  attempted  to  found  a  college 
to  prepare  men  for  the  mission  field,  but  they  were 
not  successes.  From  her  college  at  Trevecca  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon  sent  out  to  Georgia  a  band 
of  missionaries  designed  to  carry  forward  the  work 
of  Whitefield  in  that  province.  They  worked  with 
success  among  the  blacks  and  scattered  settlers  down 
to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  when 
they  returned  to  England.  Their  place  in  part  was 
then  taken  by  Francis  Asbury  in  his  tireless  travel- 
ing through  the  colonies. 

Dr.  Thomas  Coke,  one  of  Wesley's  ablest  preachers, 
was  strongly  drawn  toward  mission  plans  and  work. 
Unable  for  the  time  to  go  eastward,  he  went  westward 
instead,  a  storm  drifting  his  ship  to  the  West  India 
Islands.  At  once  beginning  work  there  among  the 
blacks,  he  broadened  plans  according  to  his  oppor- 
tunities until  he  made  those  islands  into  a  most  prom- 
ising mission  field.  After  the  Revolutionary  War, 
being  sent  by  Wesley  to  United  States  as  joint 
superintendent  with  Asbury  of  the  fast-developing 
Methodist  Church  of  that  country,  he  returned  to 
England  several  times  to  collect  money  and  to  in- 
terest people  in  the  West  India  missions.  Finally, 
when  sixty-six  years  old,  determined  to  start  a  mis- 
sion in  the  east  but  unable  to  collect  money  for  it, 
he  devoted  his  own  considerable  fortune  to  that  ob- 
ject, starting  for  India  with  several  Irish  mission- 
aries, but  he  died  on  shipboard  and  was  buried  be- 
neath the  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 


376  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

These  preliminary  steps,  feeble  and  disjointed 
though  they  seem,  were  leading  to  the  great  plans 
for  missionary  work,  soon  to  take  form  in  England. 
A  humble  shoemaker,  William  Carey,  reading  with 
avidity  books  of  travel  and  discovery,  was  deeply 
troubled  that  so  many  peoples  described  in  them 
should  be  lacking  the  light  of  Christianity.  Going 
to  a  meeting  of  ministers  at  Northampton,  Carey 
proposed  as  a  subject  for  discussion  the  duty  of 
Christians  to  spread  a  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
among  heathen  people.  To  this  novel  request,  the 
moderator  cried  out,  "Young  man,  sit  down.  When 
God  pleases  to  convert  the  heathen  he  will  do  it  with- 
out your  aid  or  mine!"  Persisting  in  his  purpose, 
Carey  reached  success,  for  in  1792  the  Baptist  mis- 
sionary society  was  formed  in  the  parlor  of  a  widow, 
Mrs.  Beebe  Wallis.  The  first  subscription  to  this 
new  society  amounted  to  13£,  2s,  6d.  Within  eight 
months  Carey  with  his  family  was  on  the  way  to 
India.  After  studying  the  Bengalee  and  Sanscrit 
languages  for  five  years,  in  1801  he  was  called  to  the 
professorship  of  Mahratta  and  Sanscrit  in  the  new 
college  founded  at  Calcutta  to  educate  the  natives, 
where  he  remained  for  thirty  years.  Before  his 
death  in  1834?  no  less  than  forty  languages  had  re- 
ceived the  Bible  in  whole  or  in  part  from  his  busy 
press  at  Serampore,  thus  making  that  book  accessible 
to  two  hundred  million  Indians.  The  East  India 
Company  virulently  opposed  the  entrance  of  Baptist 
missions  into  their  domain,  and  later  refused  to 
carry  the  missionaries  in  the  company's  ships.  Its 
charter  having  to  be  renewed  in  1813,  strenuous 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  377 

efforts  of  those  interested  caused  the  government  to 
put  into  the  charter  provisions  granting  liberty  of 
missionary  work  and  compelling  the  company  to  hold 
its  ships  open  to  the  missionaries. 

Three  years  later  than  the  beginning  of  the  Bap- 
tist Missionary  Society,  the  London  Missionary 
Society  was  organized.  The  design  was  not  to  have 
it  under  the  auspices  of  any  single  sect,  though  later 
its  direction  fell  mostly  to  the  lot  of  the  Independ- 
ents. It  established  missions  in  various  parts  of  the 
world  and  had  the  honor  of  sending  the  first  Prot- 
estant missionary  to  China.  In  1807  Robert  Mor- 
rison was  sent  there  to  put  the  Bible  into  the  native 
language.  It  was  some  years  before  a  single  con- 
vert was  made.  Not  satisfied  with  these  openings 
the  London  Society  in  1818  sent  a  company  to 
Madagascar.  Abundant  success  at  first  crowned 
their  efforts,  but  a  pagan  queen  coming  to  the 
throne,  persecution  set  in.  Still  Christianity  was 
not  stamped  out,  the  persecuted  natives  gaining  con- 
verts through  a  quarter  century  of  storm.  Past  the 
middle  of  the  century  that  queen  died  and  the  mission 
was  again  opened  with  large  results. 

The  third  great  missionary  society  in  England  or- 
ganized before  the  eighteenth  century  closed  was  that 
of  the  Anglican  Church.  At  first  the  specified  ob- 
ject was  to  work  in  western  Africa,  but  after  a  while 
world-wide  fields  were  entered. 

The  Scot  Presbyterians,  not  to  be  outdone  in  this 
beneficence,  as  early  as  1709  established  at  Edin- 
burgh the  Scottish  Society  for  Propagating  Chris- 
tian Knowledge.  Its  design  at  first  was  to  carry  the 


378 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


gospel  to  the  needy  people  in  the  Highlands  and  in 
the  Scottish  islands.  Later  their  plans  and  vision 
broadened  and  efforts  were  made  to  Christianize  the 
American  Indians.  In  Scotland  as  in  England  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  saw  the  formation  of 
a  Scottish  missionary  society,  and  the  Glasgow  Mis- 
sionary Society  was  started  the  same  year. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Dissent  in  the  meantime  was  pushing  its  vocation 
for  rights  and  freedom  and  higher  religious  life. 
The  Unitarians  started  work.  Two  men  arose 
among  them  whose  ability  and  attainments  attracted 
wide  notice, — Price  and  Priestly.  Their  writings 
entitled  them  to  respectful  hearing  by  all  the  land. 
Both  sympathized  with  the  promise  of  democracy  as 
seen  in  the  French  Revolution,  since  they  recognized 
that  Christianity  was  allied  to  that  principle. 
Though  a  harmless  man  and  a  most  philanthropic 
spirit  Priestly  was  attacked  by  brutal  mobs,  his 
invaluable  collection  of  scientific  books,  notes  and  ap- 
paratus destroyed  by  fire  set  by  the  mob  while  he 
had  to  hide  for  his  life.  Finding  himself  not  safe 
in  England,  he  fled  to  America,  while  those  traducing 
him  were  promoted  by  the  King.  But  much  of  Eng- 
land's heart  was  with  Priestly.  After  his  house  was 
burned  he  was  deluged  with  sympathetic  letters  and 
resolutions  sent  up  from  committees  from  all  parts 
of  the  kingdom. 

By  law  the  Unitarians  were  still  denied  rights 
which  other  Dissenters  held,  being  unable  to  find 
relief  even  under  the  Test  Act  or  under  the  Con- 
venticle Act.  A  bill  brought  forward  by  Fox  to 
grant  them  the  privilege  of  those  laws  was  lost  in 
1792  by  a  vote  of  more  than  two  to  one.  Both 
Burke  and  Pitt  opposed  this  bill.  So  heavy  was  the 
opposition  of  the  Established  Church  to  the  abolish- 

379 


380  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ment  of  those  acts  that  even  Pitt,  then  Prime  Minis- 
ter, decided  it  would  be  unwise  at  that  time  to  arouse 
the  animosity  of  the  church  people.  The  French 
Revolution  made  men  of  broad  statesmanship  more 
timid  than  usual.  Toleration  was  slow  in  coming, 
but  coming  it  was. 

The  evangelical  revival  had  as  one  of  its  fruits 
much  clarifying  controversy  over  theological  ques- 
tions. Dr.  Samuel  Clarke  became  satisfied  that 
Jesus  and  the  Holy  Spirit  were  not  declared  to  be 
God  but  inferior  to  God  the  Father.  He  was  ably 
answered  by  Dr.  Waterland.  Priestly  also  entered 
the  contest,  calling  out  many  replies.  Indeed  the 
Unitarians,  like  the  Deists  of  a  preceding  age,  were 
free  lances  in  the  theological  battlefield. 

The  Catholics,  though  few  in  number  (reckoned 
at  this  time  at  about  one  hundred  eighty  thousand), 
were  powerful  by  family  importance,  wealth  and 
persistence  for  rights.  There  were  four  times  as 
many  Baptists  and  five  times  as  many  Independents 
in  England.  The  Catholics  suffered  sectarian 
animosities  with  dread  of  interference  from  Rome 
and  with  fear  of  disloyalty.  But  there  was  a  soften- 
ing of  spirit  towards  this  people,  though  most  of 
the  nonconformists  looked  askance  at  them.  Efforts 
were  constantly  made  to  broaden  that  softening 
spirit.  In  1778,  on  motion  of  Sir  George  Saville,  a 
bill  passed  both  houses  without  one  negative  to 
repeal  the  Act  of  King  William's  time  designed  to 
prevent  the  further  growth  of  popery.  This  relief 
bill  at  once  fired  the  Scot  heart,  for  in  that  country 
the  bitterness  against  the  Catholics  exceeded  that  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  381 

England.  Fierce  action  of  the  synods,  fiery  pam- 
phlets by  the  thousand,  raised  a  perfect  fury  of 
feeling,  riots  occurring  in  Edinburgh  and  in  Glas- 
gow. If  one  sympathized  with  the  bill  he  was  at- 
tacked. 

With  disastrous  results  this  heat  reached  Eng- 
land. A  young  Scot  peer,  Lord  George  Gordon,  in 
London  set  in  motion  great  masses  of  the  people  who 
went  to  the  Parliament  House  in  angry  mood,  cry- 
ing, "No  popery,"  insulting  members  entering  the 
building,  wrecking  carriages,  howling  about  Parlia- 
ment, while  Peers  and  Commons  sat  in  fear  of  their 
lives.  Proceeding  from  noise  to  violence  they  put 
London  for  days  at  the  mercy  of  the  drunken  mob, 
who  burned  and  pillaged  at  will. 

Lord  George  Gordon  was  tried,  but  it  was  shown 
that  he  did  not  anticipate  such  extreme  results  and 
that  he  had  offered  his  services  to  the  government 
to  stop  the  riot.  In  the  years  immediately  follow- 
ing Parliament  showed  that  the  mob  had  not  in- 
timidated that  body.  Within  three  years  another 
relief  bill  passed  both  houses  without  dissent,  abolish- 
ing laws  against  recusants,  granting  free  worship 
and  free  schools  on  being  registered,  removing  re- 
strictions on  wills  and  the  double  land  tax,  with  per- 
mission to  practice  law  before  the  courts.  But  no 
monastic  order  was  to  be  established.  Pitt  tried  to 
get  further  favors  for  the  Irish  Catholics,  but  the 
King  being  greatly  opposed  to  such  leniency,  Pitt 
threw  up  his  office  and  a  new  ministry  was  placed 
in  power  with  the  distinct  purpose  not  to  bring  up 
the  Catholic  question.  The  King,  considering  his 


382  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

coronation  oath  to  preclude  all  favors  to  Catholics, 
tried  to  pledge  members  of  the  ministry  not  to  pro- 
pose any  further  concessions  to  the  Catholics,  but 
this  the  stout  Englishmen  refused. 

As  the  nineteenth  century  dawned,  there  came  to 
Englishmen  larger  views  of  life,  politics  and  religion. 
The  evangelical  revival  fired  the  religious  conscious- 
ness, the  increase  of  wealth  opened  new  vistas  to 
personal  hopes  and  endeavors,  the  struggle  with 
Napoleon  taught  strength  and  confidence.  It  is 
said  that  at  least  a  thousand  clergy  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  were  found  in  the  evangelical  wing. 

The  agitation  for  better  things  led  Parliament  to 
repeal  laws  regarding  Quakers  taking  oaths,  also 
the  hateful  Five  Mile  Act.  As  far  back  as  1753  a 
law  had  been  made  that  marriages  should  be 
solemnized  only  in  a  parish  church  with  Anglican 
ritual  after  bans  had  been  published  three  times,  and 
this  law  was  kept  through  more  than  a  third  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  hounded  Unitarians,  shut 
out  even  from  the  Toleration  Act,  were  granted  in 
1813  all  the  liberties  of  other  Dissenters.  In  1828 
Lord  John  Russell  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  government,  succeeded  at  last 
in  getting  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act  and  the  Cor- 
poration Act,  two  laws  that  had  been  active  in  keep- 
ing a  large  share  of  England's  good  men  from  par- 
ticipation in  national  matters.  It  is  said  that  at 
the  end  of  the  second  decade  England  had  three  mil- 
lion Dissenters. 

So  many  obnoxious  laws  had  been  repealed  that  at 
last  in  1829  an  attempt  at  Catholic  emancipation 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

succeeded.  Dissenters,  aided  by  the  press  and  by 
many  leading  statesmen,  showed  most  active  sym- 
pathy. O'Connell,  the  Irish  patriot,  expressed 
heartily  his  appreciation  of  aid  from  Dissenters. 
All,  whether  Churchmen  or  Dissenters,  had  been 
compelled  to  pay  tithes,  but  this  law  in  1836  was  so 
changed  that  the  tithes  could  be  commuted  into  a 
land  tax  by  voluntary  act  of  each  parish.  Within 
fifteen  years  nearly  all  the  parishes  of  England  had 
voted  this  change.  Soon,  too,  in  Ireland  a  like  law 
was  effected  with  similar  good  results.  A  Quaker 
having  been  elected  to  Parliament  in  1833  was  per- 
mitted to  take  his  seat  on  affirmation.  Further  on, 
two  Jews,  having  been  elected  to  Parliament,  were 
seated  amidst  many  expressions  of  hearty  welcome, 
though  up  to  that  time  denied  the  privilege  of  a 
place  in  that  body.  But  church  rates,  the  taxes 
for  keeping  churches  in  repair,  were  deemed  unjust 
by  Dissenters,  since  they  gave  money  to  build  and 
keep  in  repair  their  own  churches.  Bills  for  release 
from  those  rates  presented  at  the  first  third  of  the 
century  failed  of  passing,  as  did  others  after  the 
middle  of  the  century. 

With  so  many  obstacles  removed  from  the  paths 
of  free  progress  of  the  religious  life,  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  the  various  bodies  of  religious  people 
would  grow  in  numbers  and  new  bodies  start  into 
being.  A  church  section  of  a  national  census  or- 
dered in  1851  gave  a  most  astonishing  view  of  that 
progress.  At  that  date  the  various  Methodist 
bodies  had  11,007  chapels  with  sittings  for  2,194,298 
people.  The  Independents  had  3244  chapels  and 


384  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  Baptists  2789,  with  sittings  to  the  number  of 
752,346.  The  Catholics  a  few  years  later  had  574 
houses  of  worship.  In  England  and  Wales  together 
all  the  denominations  had  34,467  places  of  worship, 
of  which  the  Anglicans  owned  14,077.  The  total  ac- 
commodations were  for  9,467,738  people,  of  which 
the  Establishment  offered  4,428,388. 

The  missionary  spirit  so  grandly  begun  near  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  carried  forward 
with  increasing  zeal.  Commerce  extending,  missions 
went  with  it  and  often  led  the  way.  In  part  the  mis- 
sionaries offset  some  of  the  evils  going  with  traders, 
especially  traffic  in  rum  and  opium,  and  nameless 
vices. 

The  Methodist  movement  was  missionary  in  its 
very  nature  and  in  its  earliest  plans.  For  years  so 
pressing  was  the  work  in  Great  Britain  that  no  at- 
tention could  be  paid  to  foreign  peoples.  Wesley 
welcomed  Dr.  Coke  as  the  man  designed  to  carry 
on  the  peculiar  vocation  of  the  movement,  outside 
Great  Britain,  while  he  himself  confined  his  labors 
to  the  British  Isles;  hence  Coke's  work  in  United 
States,  the  northern  provinces,  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  consummation  of  his  hopes  when  in  1813  he 
finally  planned  a  mission  for  India.  After  his  death 
his  companions  opened  a  mission  in  Ceylon,  the 
locality  assigned  them.  The  Commandant  of  that 
island,  Lord  Molesworth,  attending  their  first  serv- 
ice was  happily  converted.  From  that  time  he 
greatly  aided  the  young  mission. 

The     Wesleyan     Missionary     Society     was     not 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  385 

formally  organized,  like  the  early  Baptist  Society 
and  others,  until  1817.  But  at  the  date  of  formal 
organization  Wesleyan  missions  had  been  in  opera- 
tion forty  years  with  a  corps  of  a  hundred  mis- 
sionaries, their  fields  extending  as  far  as  Australia. 
The  rapidly  developing  work  called  for  great  execu- 
tive talent  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  society, 
finding  this  in  Jabez  Bunting,  who  had  nobly  as- 
sociated with  him  Richard  Watson  and  Robert 
Newton. 

The  General  Baptists,  those  accepting  the  Armin- 
ian  views  of  redemption,  founded  a  missionary  society 
in  1816,  being  led  to  this  by  a  man  worthy  to  be 
named  with  Coke  and  Carey,  Rev.  J.  G.  Pike.  Their 
first  mission  was  started  at  Orissa,  India,  close  be- 
side the  famous  idol,  Juggernaut.  The  usual  con- 
flict with  such  gross  idolatry  took  place,  the  mis- 
sionaries preaching  and  teaching  and  showing  a  bet- 
ter way  to  those  people  so  devoutly  devoted  to  their 
imperfect  religion.  The  missionaries  also  founded 
villages  of  converted  natives  whose  loss  of  caste  cost 
them  their  means  of  very  existence.  The  Bible  was 
in  due  time  translated  into  the  language  of  Orissa. 

In  the  education  of  the  masses  there  had  never 
been  a  satisfactory  condition.  The  nonconformist 
sects  had  set  up  through  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try seminaries  especially  for  the  education  of  their 
young  men  designed  for  the  ministry,  though  many 
others  found  their  culture  in  these  schools.  They 
were  the  more  imperative  since  conscientious  Dis- 
senters, unwilling  to  subscribe  to  the  Thirty-Nine 


386  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Articles  required  to  enter  the  National  University, 
must  find  their  higher  culture  in  such  seminaries. 
The  evangelical  uplift  had  created  a  desire  in  the 
masses  for  more  knowledge,  that  being  one  of  the 
profoundest  results  of  that  grand  movement.  Sun- 
day Schools  were  of  much  worth  to  the  children,  but 
there  was  needed  a  system  of  education  beyond  them. 
In  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  young 
Quaker,  Lancaster,  seeing  the  need  of  education, 
opened  a  private  school  at  Southwark,  his  father's 
home.  Of  limited  means,  he  was  soon  perplexed  how 
to  carry  on  his  school,  grown  so  popular  that  at  the 
end  of  two  years  he  had  a  thousand  pupils.  He 
conceived  the  plan  of  using  the  older  pupils  to  teach 
the  younger  ones,  thus  at  a  very  limited  expense  doing 
his  noble  work.  His  system  and  schools  became  im- 
mensely popular,  so  much  so  as  finally  to  attract  the 
notice  and  commendation  of  the  King.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem  his  beneficence  to  the  young  and  aspir- 
ing was  strongly  opposed  by  the  Anglican  clergy, 
who  might  seem  desirous  of  keeping  the  working 
classes  ignorant  to  be  more  subservient  to  church 
dominance.  Societies  were  formed  grouped  around 
the  liberal  and  helpful  ideas  of  Lancaster  and  also 
about  the  restrictive  plans  of  the  hierarchy. 
Broughan  in  18SO  asked  permission  to  attain  better 
schools  in  Great  Britain  with  each  schoolmaster 
nominated  by  the  clergyman  and  two  or  three  parish- 
ioners. The  teacher  must  be  a  communicant  of  the 
Established  Church  and  the  clergyman  was  to  fix 
the  course  of  study.  To  these  exclusive  plans  and 
others  the  Dissenters  objected  so  strongly  that 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


387 


Broughan  withdrew  his  request  to  offer  the  bill. 
Other  plans  to  formulate  a  working  system  gave  the 
Anglican  Church  such  predominance  that  objections 
by  the  Dissenters  caused  nothing  to  be  done. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

Several  things  combined  to  start  the  trend  in 
church  life  known  as  the  Oxford  Movement,  also 
sometimes  called  the  Tractarian  Movement.  About 
the  date  of  the  Reform  Bill  certain  intense  men  at 
Oxford  were  aroused  for  the  welfare  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  They  feared  the  drift  toward  liberalism 
in  its  Evangelical  wing,  seeing  danger  also  from 
German  rationalistic  teachings  that  were  spreading 
over  all  Europe.  Fear  was  further  fostered  by  the 
agitation  brought  forward  by  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion, finally  obtained  in  1829.  The  suppression  of 
ten  bishoprics  in  Ireland  by  the  Parliament  and 
other  steps  by  that  body  were  very  suggestive  of 
Erastianism,  that  continuous  bogy  of  Churchmen. 
This  Oxford  group  had  its  fears  crystallized  by  a 
sermon  delivered  by  John  Keble  in  1833  on  National 
Apostasy  in  which  he  claimed  that  the  Reform  Bill, 
Catholic  Emancipation,  and  suppression  of  the  ten 
bishoprics  placed  the  Establishment  in  grave  danger. 
Newman  always  declared  that  this  sermon  was  the 
beginning  of  the  Oxford  Movement. 

Soon  after  that  sermon  John  Henry  Newman, 
John  Keble,  Hurrell  Froude  and  others  meeting  in 
the  parsonage  of  Hugh  Rose  at  Hadleigh  laid  out  a 
plan  to  write  a  series  of  tracts  for  the  public,  dis- 
cussing the  issues  then  coming  to  the  surface.  In 
these  tracts  they  spoke  of  the  true  church,  its  claims 

and  imperfections,  the  shortcomings  in  all  branches 

388 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  389 

of  Christianity  and  allied  matters.  These  Tracts 
for  the  Times,  scholarly,  brilliant,  being  brought  out 
in  rapid  succession,  to  the  number  of  ninety,  at- 
tracted to  themselves  much  attention.  No.  90,  writ- 
ten by  Newman,  claimed  that  the  Thirty-Nine  Ar- 
ticles were  not  directed  against  the  Catholic  Church 
but  against  heresies  earlier  than  the  Council  of 
Trent.  The  Tracts  showed  such  a  trend  toward 
Rome  that  the  bishop  in  whose  diocese  the  church 
stood  demanded  that  they  should  cease,  and  as  good 
churchmen  the  writers  obeyed.  In  that  No.  90 
Newman  claimed  also  that  one  could  sign  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  and  yet  hold  most  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  tenets.  Other  prelates  and  the  University 
authorities,  being  aroused  by  the  Romeward  tend- 
ency of  the  Tracts,  took  vigorous  steps  to  head  off 
this  drift.  The  Tractarians  however  made  abun- 
dant use  of  the  press  in  other  ways. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Tractarian  writers  and  agita- 
tors had  claimed  to  be  the  most  devoted  Churchmen. 
Their  studies  and  writings  had  led  them  to  believe 
that  the  church  rites  were  the  means  of  reaching 
the  highest  religious  life.  Hence  they  insisted  on 
baptismal  regeneration,  clerical  absolution,  with  the 
confessional,  the  worship  of  Mary,  transubstantia- 
tion,  celebration  of  the  mass  in  ornate  robes,  in  pen- 
ance and  purgatory.  The  opposition  aroused  was 
not  alone  with  the  prelates  and  universities,  for  the 
evangelical  part  of  the  Anglican  Church  and  Dis- 
senters, the  liberals  and  orthodox  of  various  views, 
strongly  repudiated  the  innovations. 

Seeing   the    need    of   a    revival   in    the    Anglican 


390  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Church,  the  Oxford  group  proposed  steps  toward  it. 
By  them  the  church  of  the  far  past  was  to  be 
brought  down  to  the  present  by  a  revival  of  its  rites 
and  teachings.  Driven  to  a  study  of  the  church 
before  the  Reformation,  Newman,  Ward  and  others 
came  gradually  to  consider  the  Catholic  Church  as 
the  only  true  one.  Hoping  to  lead  the  Anglican 
Church  to  accept  the  ceremonies  of  the  medieval 
church,  they  labored  to  that  end.  In  this  work  they 
soon  led  some  of  the  laity  to  join  them,  especially 
those  of  wealth  and  rank  whose  money  enabled  them 
to  have  leisure  for  such  activities.  However,  not  all 
the  titled  ones  went  with  the  movement,  for  in  Lord 
Shaf tsbury's  diary  is  found  written : 

"Lord,  purge  the  church  of  these  men,  who,  while 
their  hearts  are  in  the  Vatican  still  eat  the  bread  of 
the  Establishment  and  undermine  law." 

The  rabble  dubbed  them  Sacramentarians.  The 
mob  showed  its  opposition  by  going  to  a  London 
church,  howling  the  responses,  hissing,  whistling,  let- 
ting loose  drugged  dogs,  and  using  other  base  means 
of  disturbance.  Punch  made  jeering  cartoons, 
while  leading  papers  attacked  the  Tractarians.  Out 
of  the  Tractarian  movement  grew  two  important 
results,  one  a  drift  toward  Rome  the  other  into  High 
Church  life. 

Newman's  crucial  Tract,  No.  90  came  out  in  1839, 
while  he  was  rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Oxford. 
All  by  this  time  saw  his  leadership.  Indeed,  he  was 
a  natural  born  leader,  yet  so  not  by  intrigue  and 
dominating  force  so  much  as  by  a  singular  transpar- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  391 

ent  character,  high  genius  and  progressive  ideas. 
His  sermons  at  St.  Mary's  exerted  a  profound  in- 
fluence upon  the  under-graduates  and  tutors  of  Ox- 
ford. He  had  little  ambition  to  lead  in  a  reform, 
but  really  in  working  for  it  led  all  others.  Many, 
becoming  his  followers  when  under  the  charm  of  his 
presence,  later  with  more  mature  insight  refused  to 
follow  him  either  to  Rome  or  to  the  denial  of  well- 
established  belief.  Able  men  of  letters  deem  his 
"Apologia"  and  "Grammar  of  Assent"  to  lack  in 
sound  reasoning.  He  was  thoroughly  pious,  the  early 
shining  of  light  into  his  life  under  evangelical  teach- 
ings never  left  him,  since  in  all  his  later  years  he 
claimed  the  presence  and  comfort  of  that  light  as 
heartily  as  any  spiritual  nonconformist.  No  one 
should  think  of  Newman  other  than  a  towering  genius, 
possibly  the  mightiest  English  mind  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  His  greatness  made  the  grief  of 
his  countrymen  all  the  intenser  when  in  1845,  having 
two  or  three  years  before  withdrawn  from  the 
Anglican  Church,  he  was  received  into  the  Catholic 
Church,  feeling,  he  said,  like  one  coming  into  port 
after  a  rough  sea. 

The  fear  felt  by  some  that  a  large  following  to 
Rome  would  take  place,  was  groundless.  One  much 
alarmed  at  the  movement  declared  to  a  certain  states- 
man that  two  noblemen  and  their  wives  had  gone  over 
to  Rome.  The  statesman  calmly  replied,  "Show  me 
a  couple  of  grocers  and  their  wives  who  have  gone 
over;  then  you  will  frighten  me."  In  twenty  years 
some  two  hundred  clergy  went  to  Rome.  Newman 
retired  to  Birmingham  and  established  a  monastic 


392  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

house,  where  he  lived  almost  a  recluse  for  forty  years 
after  his  change,  being  made  a  cardinal  during  this 
time. 

The  second  important  result  growing  out  of  the 
Oxford  movement,  the  High  Church  trend,  was  in= 
herent  in  it  from  the  start.  The  real  movement  went 
on,  being  but  slightly  affected  by  Newman's  leaving 
it.  Wherever  the  reform  was  accepted,  much  more 
attention  was  paid  to  forms  and  ceremonies,  to  the 
liturgy,  to  saints'  days  and  church  festivals,  to 
beauty  of  ornamentation  in  the  churches.  More 
frequent  communion  was  practiced,  churches  by  the 
hundred  were  kept  open  every  day.  Scotland  and 
Ireland  were  both  reached  by  the  change.  Schools, 
that  crying  need  always  in  English  life,  were  set  up, 
their  work  designed  to  teach  the  ways  of  the  new 
spirit  as  well  as  the  demands  of  modern  thought. 
Charitable  houses  were  opened,  the  first  in  London 
in  1847.  It  was  noticed  that  many  families  were 
touched  in  their  homes,  having  joy  and  comfort,  the 
children  better  brought  up,  more  obedient,  loving  and 
well  spoken. 

The  organization  of  Sisterhoods,  allied  to  Catholic 
nunneries  also  took  place,  becoming  widespread  in 
the  decades.  Three  or  four  devout  women  started 
the  first  one  in  1845  in  a  private  house.  A  historian 
says  of  one  of  these  houses,  "It  is  one  of  the  glories 
of  our  land." 

That  wing  of  the  Establishment  designated  the 
"Broad  Church"  was  thrown  into  bitter  opposition 
owing  to  the  new  views  and  spirit,  to  some  most 
startling.  Pusey  became  the  active  leader  of  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  393 

section  whose  drift  set  strongly  toward  ritualism  of 
the  most  pronounced  type.  Though  not  reaching 
to  Rome,  many  feared  that  the  Oxford  movement  was 
making  true  Newman's  saying  that  the  Anglican 
Church  was  the  halfway  house  to  Rome.  This  wing 
of  the  Anglican  Church  refused  to  be  called  Protes- 
tants, claiming  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
As  Catholicism  is  a  polity  as  well  as  a  sect  of 
Christianity,  multitudes  of  Englishmen  are  very  shy 
of  it.  So  the  current,  not  setting  direct  to  Rome, 
was  feared  as  gradually  leading  that  way.  Says  J. 
A.  Froude,  whose  brother,  Burrell  Froude,  followed 
Newman  to  Rome: 

"The  Church  of  England  may  play  at  sacerdotalism 
and  masquerade  in  medieval  garniture,  the  clergy  may 
flatter  one  another  with  notions  that  they  can  bind  and 
loose  the  souls  of  their  fellow  Christians  and  transform 
the  substance  of  the  sacramental  elements  by  spells  and 
gestures,  but  they  will  not  at  this  time  of  day  persuade 
intelligent  men  that  the  bishops  in  their  ordination  gave 
them  supernatural  powers." 

He  says  further  that  the  nation  has  ceased  to 
care  what  the  clergy  may  say  or  do.  At  least  it  is 
apparent  that  the  ritualistic  activity  has  been  force- 
ful in  renewing  the  ways  of  Anglicanism.  Before  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  claimed  that 
half  of  the  clergy  were  of  High  Church  practices. 
The  prelates,  the  courts  and  parliament  are  found 
to  be  helpless  in  stemming  the  tide  of  ritualism. 

As  is  ever  the  case  in  Christian  fields,  some  of  the 
clergy  have  been  models  of  devotion  and  of  success- 


394  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ful  work.  Some  sought  the  most  abandoned  section 
of  British  cities,  gradually  worked  changes  so  that 
the  haunts  once  of  thieves  and  harlots  became  the 
abodes  of  honesty  and  purity.  Instances  of  devoted 
missionary  work  to  most  difficult  members  of  the 
human  family  were  not  wanting. 

Early  in  the  century  the  Baptist  Union  was 
formed,  which  proved  of  great  worth  in  binding  the 
denomination,  a  work  much  needed.  The  Union 
aided  weak  churches,  raised  an  educational  fund, 
helped  to  build  schools  of  various  grades,  stirred 
Parliament  to  give  Dissenters  better  laws,  entered 
the  courts  for  their  rights,  appealed  to  public  opin- 
ion, and  in  other  ways  pushed  forward  their  work. 

In  1876  the  Scot  and  English  Presbyterian 
churches  united  on  the  basis  that  the  Scriptures  were 
the  sufficient  source  of  truth,  also  uniting  on  the 
Westminster  Confessions,  including  the  Larger  and 
Shorter  Catechisms.  Following  this  union  the  sect 
took  on  fresh  vigor  in  England,  putting  up  new 
churches,  founding  schools  and  colleges,  aiding  the 
indigent  and  doing  splendid  missionary  work.  Many 
able  ministers  were  in  the  pulpits.  To  unify  de- 
nominational work  it  began  in  1877  to  hold  General 
Councils,  these  meeting  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom  and  in  United  States. 

The  Independents,  seeing  the  worth  of  combina- 
tion for  aggressive  work,  formed  the  Congregational 
Union.  They  still  retained,  however,  the  first  prin- 
ciple of  Independency,  that  every  individual  is  inde- 
pendent of  human  authority  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  religious  faith  and  practice,  the  same  as  every 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  395 

local  church  or  congregation  is  independent.  These 
high  claims  have  had  their  influence  not  only  in  this 
church,  but  among  other  sects  in  creating  a  sense 
of  freedom  and  rights.  To  further  their  noble  work, 
benevolent  societies  have  been  formed  and  missionary 
plans  at  home  and  abroad  have  been  pushed.  In 
the  agitation  arising  over  education  bills  of  the  early 
twentieth  century  they  have  taken  most  earnest  posi- 
tion for  rights. 

Like  the  other  denominations,  the  Unitarians 
found  that  the  changes  of  thought  touched  them,, 
modifying  their  beliefs  and  affecting  their  growth 
and  activities.  Indeed,  so  marked  was  the  change 
that  many  of  them  declared  that  they  could  hear 
as  good  Unitarian  sermons  in  the  Congregationalist 
or  Anglican  churches  as  in  their  own.  Their  drift 
was  from  the  extreme  views  of  the  older  Unitarians, — 
Lindsay,  Belsham  and  Priestly, — among  the  more 
liberal  ones  a  modified  theism  taking  the  place  of  the 
materialism  dominating  the  sect  before.  The  in- 
fluence of  James  Martineau  was  to  lead  the  Unita- 
rians along  this  trend.  As  usual  they  held  an  ad- 
vanced place  in  social  life,  in  noble  philanthropies 
and  in  fostering  education.  A  Home  Missionary 
College  was  established  at  Manchester,  the  New  Col- 
lege was  removed  from  London  to  Oxford,  they  set 
up  libraries,  museums  and  picture  galleries  that  were 
of  inestimable  worth  to  the  public.  In  Rowland  Hill, 
the  reformer  of  the  postal  rates,  this  sect  had  a 
most  exalted  benefactor  of  the  people.  As  the  cen- 
tury was  closing  they  found  it  difficult  to  produce 
enough  ministers  for  their  three  hundred  fifty 
churches. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

In  the  first  third  of  the  century,  a  remarkable  man, 
Edward  Irving,  finding  that  the  Scot  people  were  un- 
willing to  hear  and  use  him,  went  to  great  London  to 
teach  his  peculiar  faith.  There  gathered  about  him 
for  a  time  much  of  rank  and  fashion.  He  claimed 
that  the  miraculous  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost  and  other  powers  would  be  con- 
ferred by  laying  on  of  hands  if  the  conditions  of 
faith  and  prayer  were  fulfilled.  A  fourfold  ministry 
was  instituted,  that  of  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists, 
pastors.  He  hoped  to  restore  the  office  of  the  twelve 
apostles  and  through  that  to  heal  the  ills  of  Chris- 
tianity. A  speedy  coming  of  Christ  to  establish  His 
earthly  kingdom  he  also  taught.  For  awhile  Irv- 
ing's  influence  was  dominant  in  London  and  so  wide- 
spread that  his  services  were  followed  on  the  con- 
tinent. But  after  a  few  years  that  influence  waned, 
his  followers  coldly  neglected  him,  his  incipient  sect 
was  scattered,  and  he,  old  before  his  time,  buffeted, 
forlorn,  died  at  middle  age  to  have  his  work  mostly 
perish  with  him. 

The  Catholic  Emancipation  of  1829  was  followed 
by  rapid  development  of  that  denomination  in  all 
parts  of  the  empire.  Of  course  Ireland  was  the 
principal  place  of  their  church  work.  The  bill  in- 
troduced in  1845  by  Peele  to  grant  money  to  May- 
nooth  College,  Ireland,  frightened  England,  since 

Catholic  clergy  would  be  educated  and  supported  by 

396 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  397 

taxes  laid  on  Protestants.  The  bill  passing,  it  was 
thought  by  Gladstone  that  the  opposition,  though  a 
parliamentary  minority,  represented  the  true  opin- 
ion of  England  and  Scotland.  The  plan  of  the  pope 
to  organize  an  elaborate  hierarchy  for  Great  Britain 
called  out  an  act  known  as  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles 
bill  which  forbade  such  an  organization,  but  it  was 
inoperative,  the  Catholics  proceeding  to  partition  off 
the  country  into  dioceses,  appoint  prelates,  and  set 
up  monasteries  and  nunneries. 

In  spite  of  sharp  opposition,  the  alienation  of 
many  of  his  strong  supporters,  Palmerston  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  Queen  shaped  a  bill  that  passed, 
placing  the  Anglican  Church  in  Ireland  on  a  level 
with  the  Catholic  Church  and  others.  Thus  was 
presented  the  anomaly  of  one  section  of  the  empire 
with  all  the  churches  free  and  in  the  other  parts 
an  establishment  still  in  force  that  made  all  but  its 
own  members  Dissenters  in  sight  of  the  law.  A  vast 
amount  of  funds  accumulated  in  Ireland  was  divided 
among  the  Irish  sects.  With  an  even  chance  for  the 
first  time  in  centuries  the  Irish  Catholics  rapidly 
arose  in  all  elements  of  a  better  Christian  life  and 
civilization.  The  priests  often  from  the  peasant 
class  are  profoundly  revered  by  the  people.  So 
great  a  genius  for  religion  has  the  Celt  that  he  more 
readily  submits  to  ecclesiastical  dominance  than  some 
less  fiery  races.  His  religion  shapes  his  whole  life. 

When  in  1892  Cardinal  Vaughan  came  to  the 
see  of  Westminster  he  formed  the  children  already 
under  Catholic  direction  into  crusaders,  making  the 
children  the  saviors  of  the  children,  keeping  this 


398  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

crusade  active  by  his  personal  influence,  by  teach- 
ing the  children  the  joy  of  such  a  work  and  by  let- 
ters written  to  them.  This  method  of  uplifting  the 
children  has  been  followed  in  many  other  parts  of 
the  world.  Like  all  sects  the  Catholics  have  been 
touched  by  the  scientific  advance  of  the  century. 
Possibly  the  thing  that  most  deeply  affected  the 
religious  life  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century  was 
the  Salvation  Army.  To  the  genius  and  devotion 
of  one  man,  under  the  direction  of  Heaven  as  in 
the  Methodist  revival,  can  this  movement  be  ascribed. 
Indeed  it  is  a  product  of  Methodism.  William 
Booth,  in  early  life  a  Methodist,  became  intensely 
eager  for  the  good  of  his  fellowmen  and  began  preach- 
ing out  of  doors,  which  was  against  a  rule  of  the 
Wesleyans.  He  was  accordingly  crowded  out.  He 
then  united  with  the  Methodist  New  Connection,  but 
after  a  while  this  relation  hampered  him  so  that  he 
was  compelled  to  work  by  himself.  The  degraded 
masses  of  East  London  called  so  loudly  to  this  man 
that  he  plunged  into  the  seething  mass  to  do  them 
good.  He  stated  that  he  had  four  simple  principles 
of  work,  going  to  the  people  with  the  message  of 
salvation,  attracting  the  people,  saving  the  people, 
and  giving  employment  to  the  people.  By  1861  he 
had  fully  entered  upon  the  plans  since  so  greatly 
enlarged.  The  press  was  put  into  active  use,  and 
The  War  Cry,  was  projected.  A  little  later  in  a 
huge  tent  in  East  London  he  formally  opened  the 
beneficent  activities  of  his  call.  His  wife  was  a  most 
valuable  assistant.  Within  ten  years  he  had  more 
than  thirty  stations,  helpers  by  the  hundreds,  with 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  399 

thousands  of  converts  and  a  multiplying  attendance 
waiting  upon  the  services.  Known  during  those  for- 
mative years  as  the  Christian  Mission  the  name  was 
changed  in  1877  to  Salvation  Army  and  a  definite 
military  organization  formed,  made  necessary  be- 
cause those  converted  at  his  services  found  they  were 
not  welcome  in  the  churches  to  which  before  he  had 
sent  them.  A  uniform  was  adopted,  modest  and 
practical,  the  intense  workers  going  everywhere  in 
that  part  of  the  city,  into  the  public  houses,  gin 
palaces,  prisons,  brothels,  private  houses,  to  speak 
to  all  and  to  pray  with  them.  Religious  services 
were  held  wherever  they  could  gather  the  people  to 
listen  in  dance  halls,  theaters  and  in  other  places  of 
resort,  as  well  as  on  the  streets.  Any  place  was 
counted  holy  where  God's  children  whether  saint  or 
sinner  would  come  for  Christian  instruction.  Popu- 
lar tunes  had  words  of  spiritual  import  set  to  them 
and  were  sung  everywhere.  As  soon  as  a  person 
joined  them  he  was  set  at  work.  Woman's  faith  and 
devotion  were  freely  utilized.  It  seemed  another  of 
those  providential  movements  for  the  uplift  of  hu- 
manity that  so  many  times  have  had  their  origin  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

The  work  of  the  Salvation  Army  passed  in  time  to 
other  cities  of  Great  Britain  and  then  beyond  to  the 
colonies,  to  United  States,  to  the  continents.  A 
late  statement  says  that  the  Army  is  established  in 
more  than  fifty  countries.  Booth  reached  another 
stage  of  insight,  that  less  could  be  done  for  spiritual 
uplift  than  should  be  done  as  long  as  the  struggle 
just  to  live  was  so  sharp.  Out  of  this  view  grew  his 


400  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

colonizing  projects.  He  planned  to  set  up  colonies 
in  special  city  industries  and  on  farms  in  England, 
and  also  to  found  colonies  in  other  domains  where 
land  was  cheap  and  industries  varied.  If  not  always 
a  success,  yet  so  much  success  attended  these  colonies 
that  vast  good  was  done.  So  beneficial  did  these 
plans  appear  that  the  government  sent  out  H.  Rider 
Haggard,  the  author,  to  Canada  and  United  States 
to  investigate  and  report  on  those  colonies  with  a 
view  to  following  some  such  plan  itself  if  a  favorable 
outlook  was  found. 

In  Queen  Victoria  it  was  the  fortune  of  Great 
Britain  to  have  a  sovereign  whose  sympathies  and 
influence  were  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  cen- 
tury. All  forward  movements  for  the  good  of  her 
people  received  her  kindly  help.  Her  own  life  was 
a  noble  example  of  the  wife  and  mother,  her  court 
pure,  her  diplomacy  for  peace  and  its  triumphs.  She 
was  in  close  touch  with  her  people,  always  insisting 
on  constitutional  procedure  through  the  political 
changes  of  her  long  reign.  At  the  time  of  her  death 
the  multitudes  of  London  stood  mute  as  the  proces- 
sion passed,  taking  her  body  to  its  last  resting- 
place,  sturdy  sailors  instead  of  horses  drawing  the 
artillery  caisson  instead  of  a  hearse. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

As  the  eighteenth  century  was  drawing  to  a  close 
many  things  in  English  life,  in  politics  especially, 
demanded  reformation.  The  open  and  glaring  cor- 
ruption by  which  legislators  were  sent  to  Parliament, 
the  unequal  representation  of  election  districts,  the 
rejection  still  of  manhood's  rights,  combined  to  make 
Englishmen  restless. 

As  an  aid  to  progress  the  Catholic  Emancipation 
of  1829  gave  a  valuable  shock  to  the  crystallizing 
tendencies  for  reform.  O'Connell,  who  represented 
progressive  Ireland,  stood  for  universal  franchise  and 
vote  by  ballot.  The  Iron  Duke,  standing  in  the 
way  of  reform,  lost  in  the  contest  of  advancing  Eng- 
land as  he  had  won  at  Waterloo.  Earl  Grey  taking 
Wellington's  place  brought  forward  a  bill  of  reform 
in  1831,  against  which  the  king  and  great  numbers 
in  both  houses  entered  the  lists  accomplishing  its  de- 
feat. But  it  was  the  English  people,  taught  by  the 
growing  sense  of  human  rights,  enlightened  by  the 
press,  by  public  discussion  of  the  issues,  and  by  the 
advance  of  religious  liberty,  that  corruption  had 
now  to  meet.  In  1832  the  famous  Reform  Bill 
passed  the  House  of  Lords  and  received  the  King's 
signature  to  become  a  law.  In  that  bill  another 
Magna  Carta  was  given  England.  The  Reform  Bill 
of  1832  was  marked  rather  by  the  abuses  that  it 
purposed  to  lessen  than  for  advance  in  legislation. 

Yet  it  opened  the  way  to  other  progress  and  Eng- 

401 


402  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

land's  industrial  spirit  and  religious  life  were  touched 
with  a  sense  of  rich  regeneration. 

Alongside  those  great  men  who  wrought  right- 
eousness through  the  political  life  of  Great  Britain 
were  other  great  men  who  in  the  fields  of  church  life 
also  did  uplifting  things.  Among  these  prominently 
stood  James  Martineau.  Usually  classed  as  a  Uni- 
tarian, he  was  unwilling  to  be  so  named,  since  he  re- 
fused to  belong  to  any  sect  that  bore  a  distinct 
name  or  had  a  distinct  form  of  creed.  He  was  of 
French  Huguenot  blood,  thoroughly  educated  in 
Presbyterian  colleges,  preaching  while  yet  a  student, 
entering  the  pastorate  first  in  Dublin  then  in  Liver- 
pool, professor  in  two  or  three  colleges,  and  prin- 
cipal of  the  Manchester  college  after  its  transfer  to 
London,  and  there  pastor  at  the  same  time  in  a 
Unitarian  chapel.  He  was  an  independent  thinker 
in  various  lines,  became  prominent  in  liberal  advance, 
taught  that  reason  should  control  opinions  of  revela- 
tion, selecting  as  reliable  certain  parts  of  the  gospels 
while  rejecting  others. 

Clear  sighted,  he  declared  in  his  later  years  that 
the  future  of  English  religion  was  not  in  negation 
and  criticism  but  in  the  power  of  faith.  In  personal 
experience  he  deemed  the  ideal  relation  between  the 
human  spirit  and  the  divine  to  be  realized.  So  deep 
was  his  sympathy  with  religious  freedom  that  he 
heartily  approved  Gladstone's  position  in  the  debate 
on  the  Dissenters'  Chapel  Bill,  of  openness  to  pro- 
gressive change.  One  of  his  maxims  was,  "All  knowl- 
edge good,  all  conscience  free."  Missions  and  works 
of  philanthropy  heartily  enlisted  his  aid.  His  love 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  403 

of  sacred  music  led  him  to  compile  two  or  three  hymn- 
books,  finding  in  Wesley's  hymns  what  stirred  the 
profoundest  recesses  of  his  being.  Profound  also 
was  his  respect  for  Channing,  the  "New  England 
prophet,"  learning  from  him  that  moral  perfection 
is  the  essence  of  God  and  the  supremest  end  of  man. 
Another  man  exerting  a  magnificent  force  in  the 
religious  life  was  Charles  H.  Spurgeon.  He,  too, 
had  lively  religious  impressions,  and  was  converted 
at  the  age  of  sixteen  when  listening  to  a  sermon  in 
a  Methodist  chapel.  At  seventeen  he  began  preach- 
ing to  a  Baptist  congregation  at  Waterbeach, 
Combs,  receiving  twenty  pounds  a  year  salary. 
Three  years  later  he  was  called  to  London  to  the 
pastorate  of  Parkstreet  Chapel.  Here  great  num- 
bers were  attracted  by  the  spirited  preaching  of 
the  young  man.  Then  in  Exeter  Hall  vast  audiences 
listened  to  him.  Later  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle 
was  projected,  capable  of  seating  seven  thousand 
people.  In  all  of  the  building  not  a  workman  was 
hurt.  He  considered  it  an  answer  to  prayer  to  this 
end.  His  sermons,  simple,  evangelical,  printed  in 
vast  numbers,  scattered  as  widely  as  the  English 
language  is  spoken  and  put  into  many  other  tongues, 
exerted  a  rich  influence. 

Out  of  his  boundless  energy  he  projected  many 
)lans  beyond  the  central  church.  Scattered  through 
Condon  and  outside  were  missions,  smaller  churches, 
hmday  Schools  and  ragged  schools,  Bands  of  Hope, 
ilmshouses  and  other  beneficent  organizations,  all 
lirected  by  the  master  mind  at  the  Tabernacle.  A 
Favorite  work  of  his  was  the  college  which  in  a  third 


404 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


of  a  century  sent  out  nearly  a  thousand  men,  more 
than  half  of  them  entering  one  form  or  another  of 
evangelical  labors.  Mrs,  Spurgeon,  the  helpmeet 
worthy  of  such  a  husband,  aided  and  directed  the 
charities.  As  an  instance  in  fifteen  years  she  dis- 
tributed to  poor  preachers  needing  them  about 
twenty-five  thousand  books. 


CHAPTER  XU 

In  1870  a  proposal  to  make  a  revision  of  the  King 
James  translation  of  the  Bible  was  submitted  to  the 
Canterbury  Convocation  of  the  Anglican  Church  by 
the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Samuel  Wilberforce.  The 
proposal,  meeting  with  encouragement  there  and  in 
many  other  quarters,  was  soon  entered  upon,  the  New 
Testament  only  being  in  the  plan  at  first,  but  this  was 
afterwards  enlarged  to  include  the  Old  Testament. 
Men  of  learning  among  English-speaking  people 
from  all  sects  of  Protestantism  were  invited  to  join 
the  undertaking.  Of  the  sixty-five  British  scholars 
on  the  revision  forty  were  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
Of  the  American  section  Dr.  Philip  Schaff  was  chair- 
man. In  all,  ninety  men  worked  on  the  revision. 
Any  change  from  the  wording  of  the  King  James 
rendering  had  to  be  accepted  by  a  vote  of  two  to 
one.  Some  of  the  changes  proposed  by  the  Amer- 
ican revisers  on  being  sent  to  England  were  rejected. 
So  careful  was  the  work  that  it  was  ten  years  be- 
fore the  New  Testament  revision  was  completed  and 
five  years  more  before  the  Old  Testament  was  done. 
The  University  press  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
the  copyright  being  granted  them,  undertook  to 
bear  the  great  toil  of  printing  and  putting  out  the 
revision.  It  caused  the  widest  reading  of  the  sacred 
book  over  all  the  world.  Newspapers  in  the  United 
States  printed  in  a  single  issue  the  whole  of  the 

New  Testament.     Through  opinions  of  the  public 

405 


406  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ran  a  strong  note  of  dissatisfaction  that  the  revision 
changed  renderings  so  slightly.  Its  use  has  steadily 
increased,  though  by  no  means  superseding  the  King 
James  edition. 

England's  educational  system  has  never  been  satis- 
factory. The  Establishment,  in  its  efforts  for  better 
facilities,  has  been  opposed  by  Dissenters  and  Catho- 
lics, while  these  have  considered  themselves  wronged 
by  the  laws  already  in  operation  and  by  the  new 
ones  proposed.  Great  Britain,  denied  free  public 
schools  wholly  secular  by  which  some  other  nations 
have  greatly  benefited,  has  struggled  with  the  edu- 
cation of  its  youth,  but  still  at  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century  lacks  a  good  system  for  that  pur- 
pose. At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century 
nine  out  of  fourteen  children  in  England  and  Wales 
were  without  public  schooling.  In  Scotland  the  con- 
dition was  not  so  bad,  but  in  Ireland  it  was  even 
worse.  Lancaster's  plan  of  using  advanced  pupils 
as  tutors  and  monitors  supplied  to  a  degree  a  want 
for  cheap  schools,  this  method  being  followed  on 
the  continent  and  as  far  away  as  India.  It  led  to 
the  formation  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School 
Society,  a  formation  in  which  the  Quakers  were 
most  prominent, — so  promising  that  rank  and 
royalty  were  interested.  Opposition  to  Lancaster's 
system  arose  mostly  from  its  not  conforming  to  the 
ways  of  the  Establishment.  By  the  first  third  of 
the  century  state  aid  was  granted  the  schools  in  a 
limited  way,  increasing  as  the  worth  of  this  plan 
was  apparent.  Within  sixty  years  the  grants  in- 
creased from  twenty  thousand  pounds  a  year  to 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  407 

eight  millions  and  a  half.  This  aid  was  granted  to 
the  Catholics  in  Ireland,  permitting  separate  teach- 
ing of  their  own  creed. 

As  time  passed  the  education  of  the  youth,  though 
having  some  improvements,  was  lacking  in  efficiency. 
Bills  seeking  to  improve  the  situation  were  offered 
by  one  ministry  and  another  but  the  question  of  the 
kind  of  religious  instruction  to  be  given  was  al- 
ways a  block  to  the  wheels.  The  Catholics,  regard- 
ing the  schools  in  Ireland  as  godless  would  not  send 
their  children  to  them.  In  the  plans,  however,  care 
was  taken  to  protect  the  conscientious  preferences 
of  the  pupils  and  their  parents. 

By  1869  it  was  found  that  two  million  and  a  third 
pupils  were  using  the  available  accommodations  of 
various  kinds  and  that  two  million  more  children  were 
in  no  schools  at  all.  The  next  year  Gladstone's 
government  projected  a  bill  which  proposed  to  re- 
tain the  system  of  religious  instruction,  but  allow  the 
people  of  each  denomination  to  give  such  religious 
instruction  as  they  deemed  best.  Still,  so  unsatis- 
factory were  the  provisions  of  this  bill  to  the  non- 
conformists, that  it  caused  the  downfall  of  Glad- 
stone's premiership.  This  was  said  to  be  not  a  ques- 
tion religious,  but  ecclesiastical,  which  was  often  the 
very  contrary  of  religious. 

Balfour's  government  in  1902  brought  forward  a 
)ill  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  schools.  It  was 

one-sided  in  favor  of  the  Establishment  that  the 
lonconformists  made  most  strenuous  opposition  to 
;s  passage,  but  in  vain.  After  its  passage  some  Dis- 
mters  allowed  themselves  to  be  thrown  into  prison 


408       p      THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

rather  than  pay  the  hateful  taxes  to  support  the 
schools.  It  was  a  supreme  case  of  passive  resistance. 
By  provisions  of  the  bill  instruction  in  the  doctrines 
and  rites  of  the  Anglican  Church  was  obviously  de- 
clared. On  the  fall  of  Balfour's  government  and  the 
dissolution  of  Parliament,  the  Liberal  party,  pledged 
to  modify  the  educational  matter,  came  into  power. 
But  the  plans  entered  upon  by  the  Campbell-Banner- 
man's  administration  and  sent  up  to  the  Lords,  were 
not  well  received  by  that  body,  and  again  the  children 
of  Great  Britain  wait  for  education  on  the  ecclesias- 
tical notions  of  slow  conservatism. 

The  nineteenth  century  brought  forward  a  most 
wonderful  advance  in  many  fields  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge. The  preceding  century  had  handed  up  to  the 
new  one  the  elements  of  geology  so  it  was  gradually 
learned  that  the  earth  was  very  old  and  that  the 
strata  had  fossils  imbedded  in  them  showing  life  of 
remarkable  forms  and  of  vast  duration.  Theologians 
saw  in  the  writings  of  Lyell,  Buckland,  and  others 
things  contrary  to  the  accepted  tenets  of  their  theo- 
logical books.  The  early  question  arose  as  to  whether 
the  term  "day"  in  the  first  of  Genesis  meant  a  day  of 
twenty-four  hours  or  a  term  of  extended  duration. 
The  discussions  of  the  leaders  were  hot  and  loud,  and 
each  side,  confident  of  holding  the  truth,  led  farther 
and  farther  in  the  field  of  investigation. 

Near  the  first  third  of  the  century  two  men  arrived 
at  similar  conclusions  about  the  processes  of  crea- 
tion,— Charles  Darwin  and  Alfred  R.  Wallace.  It 
was  a  bit  remarkable  that  to  each  had  come  the  in- 
sight when  making  study  of  the  forms  of  life  from 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  409 

sea  and  island.  To  the  new  view  of  creation  was 
given  the  name  of  evolution. 

It  was  a  most  radical  theory  and  aroused  the  mod- 
ern intellect  as  possibly  it  had  not  been  stirred  be- 
fore. The  books  of  Darwin,  of  Wallace,  and  of  other 
able  writers  soon  placed  the  new  teaching  before  the 
public  in  most  interesting  and  voluminous  ways,  and 
as  in  the  case  of  geology,  and  indeed  in  every  great 
issue,  the  Anglo-Saxon  interest  demanded  how  this 
new  teaching  was  related  to  religion.  Theologians 
rushed  into  the  arena,  making  a  fight  for  their  tra- 
ditional views  of  man's  origin  and  place  in  nature. 
They  feared  if  this  theory  prevailed,  men  would  cast 
religion  away. 

Besides  these  two  originators  of  the  evolution  the- 
ory, a  group  of  remarkable  men  arose,  specialists  in 
philosophy  and  science,  whose  writings  and  lectures 
enlarged  and  illustrated  the  views  of  the  leaders.  Of 
these  there  were  three  who  surpassed  all  others  in 
their  power  and  influence, — Professor  John  Tyndall, 
Herbert  Spencer,  and  Professor  Thomas  Huxley. 
Added  to  their  great  ability  was  a  tinge  of  discredit 
given  by  them  to  the  dogmas  of  the  church.  In  the 
main  the  controversies  were  conducted  in  a  spirit  of 
fairness,  mostly  without  vituperation  and  personal 
abuse. 

In  the  meantime  the  work  of  the  Christian  people 
went  on  with  increasing  earnestness.  The  people,  if 
chilled  a  bit  in  their  trust  as  expressed  by  church  re- 
lations and  by  creeds  and  dogmas,  could  not  be  led  to 
throw  away  their  hopes  for  the  vague,  highly  subli- 
mated claims  of  the  scientists.  Their  vision,  growing 


410  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

broader,  caused  unrest,  but  that  unrest  had  progress 
in  it.  Any  drift  away  from  church  attendance  and 
work  did  hardly  more  than  to  remove  some  people  but 
loosely  connected  with  the  religious  life,  leaving  those 
of  strong  faith  better  informed,  more  courageous  and 
enthusiastic.  It  was  claimed  that  these  new  con- 
ditions brought  forth  a  higher  grade  of  gospel  teach- 
ing than  in  any  of  the  centuries  preceding.  The  Ox- 
ford movement  led  the  Anglican  people  to  a  stronger 
trust  in  their  liturgy,  while  the  Dissenters  with  new 
views  obtained  new  life  of  the  spirit. 

But  in  reality  some  of  those  leaders, — Spencer, 
Mill,  Huxley,  and  others, — in  the  questioning  devel- 
opment of  thought  had  deep  religious  sentiments. 
Mr.  Darwin  was  singularly  non-committal  about  re- 
ligion. His  writings  show  little  evidence  of  scep- 
ticism. 

The  present  renascence  is  comparable  to  that  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  yet  in  different  fields  and  of 
broader  significance  to  mankind.  Not  the  literature 
and  philosophy  of  a  past  civilization,  but  the  elements 
and  forces  of  a  mighty  present  are  the  matters 
brought  forward.  Many  things  of  supreme  impor- 
tance to  further  progress  are  made  definite  and  em- 
phatic. Millions  of  facts  of  nature  and  of  man  be- 
fore unknown  are  to  this  age  made  known.  Laws  ac- 
cording to  which  the  universe  is  governed  are  under- 
stood, giving  to  the  hand  of  man  means  of  multiply- 
ing his  forces,  and  of  enlarging  his  vision. 

By  the  vast  uplift  of  mind  and  of  knowledge  new 
adjustments  are  made  necessary.  Among  them  are 
the  views  of  man  as  a  religious  being.  The  new 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  411 

views  of  law  as  the  action  of  a  law-giver,  not  of  forces 
capable  in  themselves  of  supreme  action,  enable  men 
to  hold  a  rational  trust  in  God  before  lacking.  If 
God  is  to  be  traced  in  all  nature,  wielding  forces  not 
before  dreamed  of,  he  is  brought  nearer  to  man,  who 
now  as  never  before  can  see  the  beneficence  of  the 
Heavenly  Father.  Schleirmacher  said  there  was  an 
immediate  feeling  of  dependence  of  man  upon  God. 
This  is  found  to  have  a  deeper  significance  to  man 
than  questions  of  society,  of  science  or  of  government. 
If  the  Evangelical  revival  had  a  noble  vocation  to 
the  rapidly  extending  British  Empire,  the  vast  en- 
largement of  knowledge  in  the  next  century  had  its 
vocation  also  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  world.  Man  with 
wider  outlook  and  better  personality  would  seek  to 
extend  his  blessings  to  others  of  his  own  nation  and 
to  dependent  peoples.  Thus  have  come  the  franchise 
to  the  lower  classes  of  Great  Britain,  still  stronger 
insistence  of  rights  by  nonconformists,  greater  lib- 
erty to  colonies,  and  intenser  purpose  to  give  non- 
Christian  peoples  the  spiritual  and  material  benefits 
of  the  gospel.  The  brotherhood  of  man,  the  say  of 
science  that  he  is  of  one  species,  have  placed  scientists 
and  theologians  on  common  ground. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  had  brought  forth  the  first  of  a  series 
of  great  missionary  conferences  and  conventions  that 
have  lasted  ever  since.  The  earliest  of  these  meet- 
ings was  called  at  New  York  in  1854?.  Dr.  Alexander 
Duff,  the  widely  known  Scot  missionary  to  India,  was 
then  in  United  States,  the  guest  of  George  H.  Stuart 
of  Philadelphia,  who  led  in  calling  the  New  York 
Convention  to  listen  to  the  Scotsman.  Above  a  hun- 
dred fifty  delegates  gathered  from  most  of  the  de- 
nominations of  the  country,  all  becoming  greatly 
stirred  by  the  eloquence  of  Dr.  Duff  and  by  the  de- 
mands of  the  cause.  The  same  year  a  similar  con- 
vention was  called  in  London,  which,  if  not  as  widely 
attended  as  the  one  in  New  York,  yet  pushed  the 
cause  forward. 

Following  these  initiatory  meetings,  a  great  one 
was  held  at  Liverpool  in  1860.  This  one  was  inter- 
national, being  made  up  of  representatives  from  a 
large  number  of  denominations,  of  active  mission- 
aries, of  leading  men  from  many  missionary  boards, 
as  well  as  men  from  high  civil  and  military  rank. 
Nothing  marred  the  fraternal  spirit  of  the  conven- 
tion. Anglican  met  Independent,  Methodist  met 
Independent,  Methodist  met  Presbyterian,  English- 
man met  American,  all  on  common  grounds.  This 
convention  was  able  to  present  much  wisdom  before 

the  world  won  by  experience.     All  agreed  that  the 

4,12 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  413 

Bible  put  into  native  tongues  was  invaluable.  So 
with  indescribable  toil  and  patience  it  was  being  ac- 
complished. Within  the  sixty  years  of  the  century 
the  Bible  or  portions  of  it  had  been  put  into  a  hun- 
dred languages.  Bible  Societies  had  risen  alongside 
the  missionary  societies.  These  societies  were  pre- 
pared to  print  that  book  and  to  aid  the  missionaries 
in  giving  it  out  to  the  peoples. 

Everywhere  schools  had  been  started  where  it  could 
be  done.  Some  of  these  had  grown  up  from  crude 
beginnings  to  colleges  of  high  grade.  It  was  noted 
that  great  periodicals  had  changed  their  tone  from 
neglect  to  hearty  sympathy  and  frequent  notice. 
The  missionary  societies  and  the  missionaries  in 
foreign  fields  were  alert  in  using  the  press. 

Also  by  this  time  three  definite  currents  of  work 
had  been  found  valuable  and  necessary,  the  evangel- 
ical, the  educational,  the  medical.  From  the  first 
preaching  by  interpreters,  and  in  the  native  lan- 
guages as  soon  as  these  could  be  used,  was  followed  by 
good  results.  The  schools  including  mechanical  and 
manual  training  among  the  backward  peoples,  had 
also  been  attended  with  success.  In  this  department 
the  missionary  women  had  taken  hold  with  special 
zeal. 

Medical  missionary  work,  though  operating  in  a 
few  places,  was  found  proving  its  worth.  The  first 
done  was  in  1835  at  Canton  by  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  who 
treated  natives  suffering  with  bad  eyes.  Later  he 
also  worked  in  Hong  Kong.  Other  medical  establish- 
ments were  then  set  up,  giving  Bible  instruction  along 
with  the  healing  of  bodies.  It  was  seen  by  the  time  of 


414  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

this  Convention  that  the  conversion  of  peoples  in  the 
long  run  to  the  new  religion  must  mostly  be  done  by 
the  natives  developed  into  successful  workers  through 
the  various  agencies  used  by  the  missionaries.  Self- 
support  by  native  churches  in  part  or  wholly  was 
found  to  be  most  important,  the  careful  missionaries 
guiding  and  encouraging  to  that  end.  At  times  of 
famine  or  war  the  missionaries,  sensitive  to  suffering 
humanity,  had  gathered  orphans  and  others,  feeding, 
clothing,  caring  for  them. 

The  uplift  of  missionary  zeal  aroused  by  the  Con- 
vention brought  a  spirit  of  revival  throughout  Eng- 
land. The  blending  of  denominations  was  most 
hearty,  the  brotherhood  o|  toilers  making  all  hopeful 
and  happy.  Out  of  the  Convention  also  came  the 
remarkable  movement  reaching  to  the  present,  a  sug- 
gestion of  Mr.  Bickersteith  that  a  week  of  prayer  for 
missions  be  held  the  first  of  January  each  year.  The 
scope  has  been  broadened  to  include  many  subjects 
and  is  now  universally  observed  over  all  Christendom. 

Eighteen  years  passed  before  another  great  inter- 
national gathering  was  called.  In  1878  the  Mild- 
may  Conference  met  in  London  to  compare  methods, 
report  work,  cheer  each  other,  and  unitedly  to  seek 
Heaven's  blessing  upon  mission  work. 

Nearly  all  the  Protestant  mission  work  was  being 
done,  it  was  found,  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  and  by 
such  continental  peoples  as  were  of  closely  allied 
blood.  At  this  conference  a  French  missionary  said : 
"I  came  here  also  to  ask  guidance,  for  we  look  to  you 
Anglo-Saxons,  to  those  who  are  representatives  of 
Christian  civilization,  for  advice." 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  415 

It  was  reported  at  the  Mildmay  Conference  that 
the  Bible  Societies  and  the  Tract  Societies  were  show- 
ing marked  success  along  with  the  missionaries. 

Wise  missionaries  were  adapting  themselves  to  dif- 
ferent countries,  various  peoples,  and  to  peculiar 
faiths.  The  missionaries  working  among  the  Moham- 
medans found  deep-seated  prejudices  and  a  deep- 
seated  claim  for  the  superiority  of  Islam,  so  the  work 
was  not  as  successful  as  among  other  peoples.  Yet 
with  Anglo-Saxon  determination  they  were  holding 
on  in  Egypt,  in  Syria  and  elsewhere. 

One  of  the  most  stirring  things  discussed  at  this 
Conference  was  slavery  in  Africa.  The  Arab  slave- 
trader  was  still  cursing  Africa.  His  religion  per- 
mitted this  traffic.  The  trade  on  the  east  coast  had 
been  mostly  stopped,  the  vigilance  of  British  gunboats 
being  most  effective,  but  to  the  northward  there  was 
still  an  open  passage.  On  January  1st,  1877, 
slavery  in  Portuguese  Africa  had  been  formally  abol- 
ished. But  Central  Africa  was  the  plague  spot. 

Three  great  missionary  societies  beside  those  al- 
ready active  in  the  south  and  along  the  coast  had  now 
in  Africa  well-established  stations  far  in  the  interior. 
The  Scot  Presbyterian  churches  united  to  found  one 
on  Lake  Nyassa,  and  they  had  been  most  successful. 
The  same  was  true  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
Station  established  on  Lake  Nyanza.  The  London 
Missionary  Society  did  a  like  noble  work  by  penetrat- 
ing to  Lake  Tanganyika,  the  missionaries  in  these 
three  cases  being  in  the  pioneer  footsteps  of  the  ex- 
plorers to  the  central  regions  of  the  great  continent. 
These  three  interior  missions  were  considered  strate- 


416  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

gic  locations,  where  successful  work  was  being  done  to 
stop  tribal  wars  and  cannibal  feasts,  to  put  a  check 
on  marauding  expeditions  for  catching  slaves. 

The  help  of  woman  in  mission  fields,  neglected  in 
the  early  development  of  the  work,  was  after  three- 
fourths  of  a  century  fully  recognized.  In  1828  Miss 
Bird  was  admitted  to  several  zenanas,  really  begin- 
ning all  that  beneficence  since  carried  on  with  such 
marked  worth. 

Reports  given  in  from  many  great  mission  fields 
were  of  the  most  encouraging  tone.  In  India  edu- 
cated natives  were  seeing  more  and  more  the  beauty 
of  Christianity,  even  though  not  accepting  it.  Mod- 
ern civilization  was  actively  at  work  changing  India 
for  the  better. 

No  farther  back  than  1835  it  was  impossible  for 
Morrison  even  to  enter  China  as  a  missionary.  In 
order  to  start  a  college  for  educating  the  Chinese  he 
had  to  set  it  up  in  far-away  Malacca  among  Chinese 
emigrants.  Morrison  waited  persistently  at  the 
closed  gates  of  China  to  be  rewarded  finally.  By  the 
time  of  this  Conference  work  there  was  well  under 
way. 

The  remarkable  change  in  Japan  had  set  into  defi- 
nite shape  by  the  time  of  the  Mildmay  Conference. 
In  1872  the  missionaries  and  English  residents  in  Yo- 
kohama united  in  a  week  of  prayer.  Some  Japanese 
students  attended  these  meetings.  A  mighty  uplift 
occurred.  That  year  the  first  native  church  was  or- 
ganized and  though  of  but  eleven  members  it  was  the 
beginning  of  all  the  native  growth  afterward.  A  the- 
ological school  was  opened. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  417 

One  field  showing  supremest  success  was  on  the 
island  of  Oceanica.  Nearly  all  those  scattered 
groups  had  been  won  to  Christ.  Leading  in  this 
grand  work  were  the  London  Society,  the  Wesleyan 
Society,  and  the  American  Board.  So  marked  were 
the  Hawaiians  by  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity  that 
they  were  themselves  sending  missionaries  to  other 
islands.  In  Australia  the  aborigines  were  yielding 
but  poor  results.  Their  inveterate  migratory  habits 
had  left  one  important  station  established  by  the 
Wesleyans  without  a  single  native  to  attend,  while 
other  societies  had  suffered  similar  misfortunes.  New 
Guinea  had  been  successfully  entered  by  the  London 
Society  besides  two  Australian  Societies.  Off  the 
northeast  coast  of  that  great  mass  of  land  the  Wes- 
leyans had  started  a  mission  on  some  small  islands. 
Chinamen  coming  to  those  localities  as  laborers  were 
met  by  missionaries  and  work  among  them  was  begun. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

Ten  years  passed  and  another  great  missionary 
meeting  assembled,  known  as  the  Exeter  Hall  Cen- 
tenary Conference.  This  Conference  of  1888  was  on 
a  vaster  scale  than  any  of  the  preceding  ones.  In  it 
gathered  fifteen  hundred  delegates  representing  one 
hundred  forty-one  missionary  societies,  sixty-eight  of 
these  from  United  States  and  Canada,  fifty-four 
from  Great  Britain  with  thirteen  hundred  delegates, 
while  the  continent  sent  men  from  seventeen  societies 
and  the  colonies  were  represented  by  two  societies. 
An  intense  enthusiasm  marked  the  proceedings.  The 
foreign  missionary  spirit  greatly  aided  home  mis- 
sions and  held  the  home  church  to  the  simple  evan- 
gelical truths  of  the  gospel.  It  was  declared  at  the 
Conference  that  Whitefield  and  Wesley  in  their  mis- 
sion to  Georgia  and  in  field  preaching  taught  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  the  true  missionary  spirit,  as  the 
work  of  Robert  Haldane  taught  the  spirit  of  home 
missions.  The  Conference  deemed  that  the  oracles 
of  God  were  in  these  times  committed  to  the  English 
people,  making  them  the  ambassadors  of  Christ  to 
other  races. 

But  blocking  this  message  stood  three  great  ob- 
stacles, for  the  removal  of  which  the  Exeter  Hall 
Conference  besought  civilized  man — the  opium  traffic, 
that  of  liquors,  and  legal  protection  of  the  social  vice. 
To  the  African  people  another  evil  was  carried,  fire- 
arms, for  such  as  could  procure  them  were  enabled  to 

418 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  419 

be  more  destructive  in  their  slave  hunting  and  in  their 
tribal  wars. 

The  Bible  was  now  presented  to  the  world's  people 
in  about  three  hundred  languages.  The  Bible  So- 
ciety and  the  Tract  Societies  were  crowded  to  the 
intensest  activity,  the  former  issuing  four  million 
Bibles  in  a  single  year.  Of  tracts  twenty-six  millions 
also  were  thrown  out  one  year. 

Grandly  shown  at  this  Conference  as  never  before 
was  the  wisdom  of  setting  women  at  work.  In  1887 
Bishop  Thoburn  returned  to  India  from  America  with 
a  body  of  recruits  for  his  mission.  Of  these  fifteen 
were  women,  two  were  men.  Native  women,  like  na- 
tive men,  were  themselves  heartily  at  work  in  mission- 
ary duties.  Of  one  hundred  eighty-six  native  helpers 
among  the  Tamils  and  Telugus,  forty-three  were 
women.  The  native  women  in  China  and  the  western 
women  teachers  in  Japan  were  everywhere  welcome. 
The  example  and  memory  of  Mrs.  Moffatt  in  South 
Africa,  of  Mrs.  Hills  at  Athens,  and  of  other  de- 
voted women  in  other  localities  were  an  inspiration  at 
home  and  abroad.  Woman's  Boards  by  the  score 
had  been  organized  with  thousands  of  auxiliaries  in 
England  and  in  America.  On  a  ship  going  to 
England  just  before  the  Exeter  Hall  Conference  an 
American  delegate  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man 
who  said,  "You  know,  I  had  no  interest  in  foreign 
missions;  I  cared  nothing  for  missions,  but  my  wife 
became  heart  and  soul  interested  in  them  and  the  con- 
sequence is  that  she  fired  me  with  enthusiasm,  and  I 
am  going  to  London  to  attend  the  Conference." 

The  glance  given  Catholic  missions  in  India  showed 


420  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

above  two  millions  and  a  half  adherents,  nearly  three 
thousand  European  missionaries,  a  hundred  thousand 
pupils  in  the  schools.  The  Catholics  were  also  suc- 
cessful in  China,  among  the  Indians  of  America,  in 
the  far-away  islands  of  Oceanica  and  elsewhere. 

At  that  Conference  glimpses  were  given  of  the 
fruits  of  missionary  zeal  from  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Africa  poured  out  not  in  vain  a  pathetic  appeal  to 
missionaries.  In  the  Transvaal  mission,  the  Wesley- 
ans,  having  begun  with  no  place  of  worship,  now  had 
four  hundred  stations  and  preaching  places,  with 
thirty  thousand  members.  So  remarkable  was  the 
success  on  the  Fiji  Islands  that  while  fifty  years  be- 
fore there  had  been  not  a  Christian,  now  there  was 
not  a  heathen.  So  thorough  was  the  change  that 
only  nine  foreign  missionaries  were  on  the  island,  the 
churches  being  supplied  with  more  than  three  thou- 
sand native  preachers,  and  the  forty  thousand  native 
children  being  taught  by  native  teachers. 

Again  those  interested  in  missions  gathered  in  an 
Ecumenical  Conference,  this  time  in  1900  in  New 
York.  Hundreds  of  delegates  poured  in  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  seven  hundred  of  them  being  mis- 
sionaries. Every  day  and  evening  the  people 
crowded  Carnegie  Hall  to  the  utmost,  compelling 
overflow  meetings  at  adjacent  churches  till  it  was  said 
that  two  hundred  thousand  attended  the  various  as- 
semblies. 

It  was  said  that  the  nineteenth  century  was  one  of 
experiment  in  missions  rather  than  one  of  achieve- 
ment. The  look  forward  was  to  much  vaster  results 
in  the  twentieth  century.  Still  the  successes  won, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  421 

the  names  honored,  the  heroic  self-sacrifice,  were  re- 
garded as  most  inspiring.  Missions  were  deemed  as 
one  field  of  Christian  work  that  God  had  supremely 
blessed.  It  was  worth  a  century  of  beginnings  to 
report,  as  was  done,  that  there  were  five  thousand  mis- 
sion stations,  fifteen  thousand  out  stations,  thirteen 
thousand  western  men  and  women  in  foreign  fields, 
with  sixty-two  thousand  native  helpers  and  a  million 
and  a  half  of  living  converts  and  other  millions  gone 
to  their  eternal  home.  On  the  medical  dispensaries 
seventeen  million  patients  waited  each  year.  Chal- 
mers had  said  that  foreign  missions  act  on  home  mis- 
sions not  by  exhaustion  but  by  fermentation.  Dr. 
Duff  declared  that  the  church  which  is  not  evangelis- 
tic will  soon  cease  to  be  evangelical. 

The  worth  of  the  printed  page  was  shown  again 
and  again.  A  Hindu  merchant  on  his  travels  was 
given  a  Testament.  Later  he  came  to  baptism  with 
all  his  family.  A  robber  band  in  the  mountains  read 
a  Christian  tract  in  their  fastness  and  were  changed 
to  honest  men,  twelve  of  them  applying  for  baptism. 

While  the  Conference  was  sitting  the  famine  was 
?vere  in  India,  and  the  assembly  proceeded  to  or- 
lize  a  famine  relief.  In  that  famine  of  1900  the 
American  Board  took  up  two  thousand  orphans,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Missions  accepted  as  many 
more,  while  other  missions  also  did  nobly  for  the  suf- 
fering. Pundita  Ramabai  was  busy  at  her  noble  vo- 
cation, having  taken  three  hundred  widows  to  her 
Poona  home  in  the  famine  of  1897.  She  set  those 
waifs  at  varied  industries,  housekeeping  and  other 
indoor  work,  fruit  raising,  farming  and  the  like  out 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

doors.  Sir  Henry  Ramsey  had  founded  a  home  for 
lepers  at  Almora,  in  this  noble  beneficence  leading  all 
others.  Miss  Mary  Reed,  caring  for  these  unfortu- 
nate ones,  was  smitten  with  the  disease,  henceforth 
devoting  her  life  to  them. 

The  education  of  the  youth  of  India  was  placing 
them  at  one  with  the  student  body  of  the  world.  The 
philosophy  taught  was  in  some  ways  leading  to  the 
personality  of  God,  yet  the  Hindu  schools  were  teach- 
ing their  pupils  to  oppose  Christianity.  The  govern- 
ment schools,  in  their  efforts  to  be  non-partisan,  often 
had  a  trend  toward  agnosticism  and  materialism. 
Missionary  schools  led  most  of  their  pupils  to  Chris- 
tianity. Forty  thousand  students  crowded  the  col- 
leges of  India,  nearly  twice  as  many  as  were  in  all  the 
colleges  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  So  eager  were 
the  young  for  education  that  the  attendance  was 
steadily  increasing.  In  other  eastern  countries  the 
education  of  the  natives  was  grandly  increasing  and 
the  press  was  tireless. 

Literature  of  a  high  grade  was  lacking,  but  efforts 
were  made  to  meet  the  need.  As  the  Philippines  felt 
the  touch  of  the  new  order,  they  were  clamoring  for 
the  Bible,  it  not  having  been  given  them  in  three  hun- 
dred years  of  Spanish  dominancy. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

A  vision  of  the  present  shows  that  righteousness 
and  charity,  love  to  mankind  and  longing  for  peace, 
have  come  to  the  world  as  never  before.  The  re- 
ligious life  has  been  found  to  be  as  broad  as  God's 
dealings  with  humanity.  If  the  principles  of  this 
life  seem  to  have  come  slower  than  the  tremendous 
industrial  and  commercial  spirit,  they  are  still  pres- 
ent and  active.  While  stupendous  fortunes  have  ac- 
cumulated, vast  sections  of  them  have  in  many  in- 
stances been  turned  into  channels  bringing  comfort, 
education,  advance  to  multitudes  of  people.  The 
multiplied  means  of  rapid  travel  has  brought  the 
people  into  touch  with  their  fellows  vastly  more  than 
before,  the  four  nations  by  that  becoming  better  ac- 
quainted and  being  made  more  sympathetic. 

In  London  science  joined  hands  with  Christianity 
to  remove  the  plague  spots  of  vice,  ignorance  and 
crime.  Possibly  that  city  showed  the  extreme  degra- 
dation of  the  Anglo-Saxon  life.  Better  control  of 
disease  by  medical  practice  and  sanitation  has  much 
ameliorated  conditions  there.  The  work  of  various 
orders  of  Sisters,  the  Salvation  Army,  and  the 
churches  constantly  aided  in  lifting  many  out  of  the 

quagmire. 

Two  settlements  in  London  can  well  be  studied. 
A  young  man,  Quinton  Hogg,  having  left  Eton,  un- 

lertook  work  among  the  outcast  boys   of  London, 
learn  the  best  ways  of  doing  this  he  turned  street 
423 


424  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

arab  himself  for  several  months,  blacking  boots, 
sleeping  under  archways  and  by  other  means  learning 
the  ways  and  spirit  of  the  street  boys.  Then  he  op- 
ened a  ragged  school,  to  which  he  attracted  the  boys. 
The  aid  of  philanthropic  people  was  enlisted  and  out 
of  that  beginning  arose  the  Regent  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tution, in  which  the  sum  of  a  hundred  thousand 
pounds  was  finally  invested.  In  addition  to  private 
gifts,  money  was  given  to  the  undertaking  by  the 
London  County  Council.  At  the  untimely  death  of 
the  projector  flags  of  the  city  were  placed  at  half- 
mast. 

It  was  also  at  the  East  End  that  another  settle- 
ment was  made  among  a  population  said  to  be  most 
brutal,  their  habits  disgusting,  and  their  ideal  idle- 
ness. "By  them  the  honest  man  and  right-living 
woman  were  scorned  as  impracticable."  The  masses 
were  joyless,  the  young  hopeless.  Into  such  a  local- 
ity in  1872  Mr.  Barnett  went  with  his  young  wife  to 
a  parish  where  eight  thousand  people  lived  on  a  space 
of  one  hundred  nine  thousand  five  hundred  square 
yards.  This  young  couple  opened  the  deserted 
church,  started  schools  and  Bible  classes,  organized  a 
relief  committee  and  other  parish  machinery.  Many 
of  the  people,  instead  of  trying  to  meet  their  own 
wants,  came  to  the  rector  constantly  begging.  Mr. 
Barnett  and  his  wife,  visiting  Oxford,  told  of  the  sit- 
uation at  the  East  End,  arousing  spirited  young  men 
to  save  the  people  from  such  conditions.  The  rector 
suggested  the  purchase  of  a  house  as  headquarters 
for  University  men  to  stay  a  longer  or  shorter  time, 
working  among  the  degraded  people.  This  move- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  425 

ment  grew  and  a  larger  house  was  erected,  a  promi- 
nent leader  in  the  work  being  Arnold  Toynbee,  whose 
death  at  an  early  date  led  them  to  name  that  building 
Toynbee  Hall.  Twenty  young  University  men  lived 
there  at  one  time,  toiling  to  lessen  the  ignorance  and 
vice  of  the  suffering  masses  about  them.  Toynbee 
Hall  has  a  history  known  as  widely  as  Christianity 
goes,  and  has  many  imitations  in  the  great  cities  of 
the  world. 

All  efforts  to  suppress  Christianity  have  been  flat 
failures.  Direct  science  could  not  be  made  into  a 
cult.  It  would  yield  no  spiritual  aliment.  So,  too, 
the  claim  put  forward  for  humanism,  setting  human- 
ity as  a  whole  in  place  of  Deity,  was  a  failure.  A 
Metaphysical  Society  formed  in  1869  had  discussions 
in  the  freest  spirit,  to  which  came  men  of  various 
shades  of  faith,  Gladstone,  Martineau,  Manning, 
Tennyson,  Argyl,  Huxley,  Ruskin.  But  metaphysics 
could  not  equal  the  high  help  given  the  human  spirit 
by  religion,  so  this  society  perished,  it  was  said,  out 
of  charity  and  love. 

Another  principle  fostered  by  science  as  well  as  by 
Christianity  was  that  of  rights.  Slavery  was  oblit- 
erated and  religious  persecution  lessened.  More  than 
ever  before  was  a  chance  made  for  all  men.  Spencer 
said,  "The  end  which  statesmen  should  keep  in  view  as 
higher  than  all  other  ends  is  the  formation  of  charac- 
ter." The  gift  of  rights  in  franchise,  in  social  and 
religious  life,  was  slow  but  certain.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  striking  fruits  of  rights  in  England  that  John 
Burns,  though  in  the  ranks  of  laboring  men,  should 
in  the  formation  of  the  Liberal  Ministry  in  the  first 


426  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

decade  of  the  twentieth  century,  be  given  a  place  in 
the  Cabinet. 

As,  the  heat  of  controversies  over,  matters  of 
science  and  religion  cooled,  it  was  found  that  some 
teachings  claimed  by  science  were  greatly  modified, 
and  on  the  other  hand  some  positions  held  by  re- 
ligious teachers  were  left  in  the  rear.  It  was  urged 
that  the  apparent  discrepancies  between  science  and 
the  Bible  were  owing  to  human  theories  drawn  from 
both,  not  to  any  real  difference,  since  nature  was  the 
work  of  God  and  the  Bible  the  word  of  God. 

With  the  progress  so  enriching  life  has  come  a 
multitude  of  benedictions  to  woman.  By  increased 
culture  and  opportunities,  lives  and  homes  have  been 
made  more  joyous  and  given  broader  outlook.  Pri- 
vilege and  duty  were  more  clearly  defined.  Ener- 
getic women  like  Miss  Bees  and  Miss  Somerville 
worked  for  educational  chances  for  girls  till  high 
schools  were  opened  to  them,  and  most  naturally  col- 
leges were  needed,  and  that  need  was  met  in  opening 
Newnham  and  Girton,  and  later  others. 

If  in  high  realms  of  spirit  woman  was  crowding  up- 
ward, she  also  became  efficient  in  humbler  ministries 
of  life.  To  the  toiling  and  underpaid  of  the  great 
cities  devoted  women  supplied  food  at  the  cheapest 
rates,  and  to  those  penniless  even  without  pay.  The 
sisterhood  of  the  Anglican  Church  opened  houses 
where  penny  soups  and  two-penny  lunches  could  be 
obtained,  these  stands  throughout  the  cities  being 
thronged  by  hungry  men, — toilers  or  those  out  of 
work, — presenting  most  pathetic  scenes  of  need  and 
gratitude.  This  pioneer  work  was  followed  by  other 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


427 


sects,  the  Salvation  Army  making  a  most  notable 
record  in  this  field.  To  aid  the  poor  to  aid  them- 
selves charitable  organizations  opened  rooms  where 
wives  and  daughters  of  the  needy  could  do  sewing,  by 
that  earning  a  pittance  to  relieve  their  families. 
Said  George  Macdonald : 

"The  tide  of  action  in  these  days  flows  more  swiftly 
in  the  hearts  of  women,  whence  has  resulted  so  much 
that  is  nobler,  so  much  that  is  paltry,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  heart  in  which  it  swells." 


CHAPTER  XLIV 

In  America  the  religious  life  first  found  an  open 
field.  The  old  world  had  the  hateful  words,  inqui- 
sition, nonconformity,  toleration,  dissenter.  If  pass- 
ing whiffs  of  these  hateful  things  were  wafted  to  the 
new  world  they  were  gradually  stilled  so  that  com- 
plete religious  liberty  finally  prevailed.  Men  perse- 
cuted for  their  religious  opinions  in  different  nations 
turned  longing  eyes  toward  America,  hopeful  of  find- 
ing opportunities  denied  them  in  Europe.  Their 
hopes  were  not  in  vain.  Yet  not  religion  alone  led 
men  to  America.  Political  unrest  was  almost  as 
vivid  as  that  of  religion.  With  the  printing  press, 
the  discovery  of  the  new  continent,  the  Renascence, 
the  invention  of  gunpowder  and  the  compass,  and 
with  the  broadening  of  knowledge,  came  the  Reforma- 
tion and  incipient  Democracy. 

From  the  first,  two  high  principles  were  uppermost 
in  the  thought  and  purpose  of  the  immigrants, — re- 
ligious liberty  and  civil  freedom.  Yet  they  brought 
with  them  oversea  some  of  the  old-world  imperfec- 
tions. So  dissent  to  Dissenters  in  Massachusetts  was 
made  a  crime,  and  dissent  to  Episcopalians  in  Vir- 
ginia was  also  made  a  crime.  But  there  was  in  the 
new  world  in  its  open  life,  the  vast  unknown  expanse, 
in  the  enlargement  of  vision,  that  which  would  neither 
continue  to  suffer  nor  to  inflict  such  limitations. 

The  Puritans  who  mostly  settled  other  parts  of 
New  England  like  the  little  group  of  Pilgrims  at  Ply- 

428 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  429 

mouth  were  in  search  of  rights,  of  religious  service 
and  self-government.  But  their  Puritanism  was  in- 
sistent that  all  must  attend  Puritan  churches  or  be 
mulcted.  Heretics  were  run  out  of  the  colonies, 
Quakers  hanged,  and  other  ways  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  were  violated.  That  was  at  first.  Gradually 
a  better  spirit  grew  up,  for  it  was  impossible  that 
tyranny  even  of  the  many  should  flourish  in  America. 
The  free  spirit  gradually  stopped  the  hanging  of 
witches,  just  as  it  opened  the  gates  of  jails  to  those 
imprisoned  for  religious  opinions. 

The  religious  life  like  the  ethnological  life  of 
America  was  made  up  of  many  diverse  peoples  and 
creeds.  New  York  was  settled  by  the  Dutch.  In 
Holland  it  was  uncomfortable  for  those  differing 
from  the  Established  Church,  and  these  dissenters, 
refugees,  sought  freedom  of  worship  and  colonized 
Manhattan.  The  directors  designed  the  young  city 
as  an  asylum  for  refugees  from  every  land.  "No  per- 
son," they  said,  "professing  faith  in  God  by  Jesus 
Christ  shall  at  any  time  be  in  any  way  disquieted  or 
questioned  for  any  differences  of  opinion."  French 
Protestants  came  to  Manhattan  in  great  numbers  as 
later  they  went  to  South  Carolina.  The  Dutch  set- 
tlement there  was  more  forward  in  religious  liberty 
than  Massachusetts  or  Virginia.  Sweden,  too,  sent 
its  freedom-loving  immigrants  in  search  of  rights ; 
large  numbers  of  them,  furnished  with  religious  teach- 
ers from  the  start,  settled  on  the  peninsula  of  Dela- 
ware. 

To  Penn,  as  he  was  planning  his  province,  "gov- 
ernment was  a  part  of  religion  itself,  an  emanation 


430  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  divine  power,  capable  of  kindness,  goodness  and 
charity."  Philadelphia  was  prophetic  of  national 
independence.  New  Jersey,  thanks  to  the  Quaker 
spirit  founding  it  upon  humane  principles,  was 
started  with  the  purpose  that  freedom  of  judgment, 
conscience  and  worship  should  be  granted  to  every 
peaceful  citizen.  To  that  province  also  came  many 
Scot  Presbyterians  from  the  prelatical  persecutions 
of  their  own  country,  blending  in  the  new  world  love 
of  popular  liberty  with  religious  enthusiasm. 

Lord  Baltimore  when  his  little  fleet  was  preparing 
to  go  with  colonists  to  Maryland,  put  it  under  the 
protection  of  God,  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  of  St. 
Ignatius.  Some  Jesuits  included  in  the  immigrants 
at  once  on  landing  set  up  a  cross  and  offered  mass  in 
an  Indian  hut.  While  it  was  distinctly  a  Catholic 
country  it  allowed  all  to  cultivate  their  religious  life 
as  they  would.  In  South  Carolina  the  Anglican 
Church  was  put  foremost,  yet  Dissenters  came  in 
great  numbers.  The  French  Huguenots  thronged 
there  till  the  colony  and  later  the  state  took  much  of 
its  caste  from  them.  Faneuil  Hall,  the  cradle  of 
liberty  of  the  north,  was  the  gift  of  a  Huguenot's 
son.  North  Carolina  when  being  founded  had  no 
special  plans  for  religious  life.  People  of  many 
creeds  went  there  and  many  with  little  dependence  on 
the  sects  or  creeds.  Freedom  of  conscience  was  their 
joy.  By  act  of  the  incipient  assembly  freedom  of 
religion  was  established  in  spite  of  attempts  to  make 
the  Anglican  Church  dominant.  As  late  as  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Georgia  General 
Oglethorpe  sought  a  spot  where  one  could  worship 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  431 

in  the  simplicity  of  his  own  way  without  fear  or  per- 
secution. To  such  a  region  people  outside  of  Great 
Britain  came,  from  Germany  Salzburgers,  Moravians 
and  others,  pious,  peaceful,  industrious,  finding  the 
asylum  they  sought.  There  also  John  Wesley  and 
Charles  Wesley  obtained,  if  roughly,  help  in  their  re- 
ligious development. 

As  time  passed  and  the  colonies  grew  in  size  they 
became  more  insistent  on  their  rights,  religious,  so- 
cial, commercial,  political.  A  century  before  the 
Revolutionary  War  incipient  steps  were  taken  toward 
independence.  The  union  of  church  and  state  in  New 
England  worked  badly  and  a  similar  condition  in  Vir- 
ginia was  put  into  bloody  execution  by  Governor 
Dale.  When  Andros  was  forcing  the  New  England 
colonies  to  give  up  their  cherished  charters  the  min- 
isters in  many  instances  preached  what  was  consid- 
ered sedition  and  were  so  militant  as  to  plan  resist- 
ance to  that  minion  of  bad  English  government.  The 
last  call  of  the  United  Colonies  was  a  call  for  the 
defense  of  the  Protestant  religion.  On  the  accession 
of  William  Third  the  new  charters  granted  freedom 
to  every  sect  save  to  the  Romanists.  Gradually 
from  that  time  royal  authority  was  used  to  give  wider 
privileges  to  all  in  America.  A  law  in  South  Car- 
olina depriving  Dissenters  of  political  rights  was  re- 
pealed by  the  King  in  Council  and  laws  in  other  col- 
onies favoring  one  denomination  to  the  injury  of 
another,  were  also  annulled  by  the  King. 

Though  the  Anglican  Church  in  Virginia  was  the 
state  church  it  gradually  allowed  other  sects  to  in- 
crease. Up  to  the  Revolutionary  War  that  dom- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

inancy  continued  and  as  good  a  governor  as  Sir  Will- 
iam Berkley  could  thank  God  they  had  no  schools 
and  printing  in  that  colony,  praying  to  be  kept  from 
both,  afraid  that  learning  had  brought  heresy  and 
disobedience  and  the  sects,  while  the  printing  press 
had  divulged  them  and  put  forth  libels  against  the 
best  of  governments.  The  conduct  of  church  mat- 
ters was  democratic  since  many  took  a  hand  in  them 
whether  in  the  parishes  of  the  south  or  in  the  Congre- 
gational churches  of  the  north.  Town  meetings  and 
parish  meetings  were  the  seed  plots  of  liberty. 

The  expanding  area  of  settlement,  the  terrible  In- 
dian wars,  the  French  encroachments,  aided  the  in- 
creasing colonists  in  dropping  sharp  sectarianism 
and  in  working  together.  If  the  soldiers  clad  in 
homespun  held  religious  meetings  before  Louisburg, 
it  mattered  little  to  them  if  all  present  did  not  agree 
in  every  shade  of  Puritan  belief.  When  fighting  for 
the  safety  of  their  homes,  of  their  wives  and  children, 
neither  did  it  matter,  if  the  stout  pioneer  could  endure 
the  hard  march  and  could  shoot  well,  whether  he  was 
a  Congregationalist  from  Boston,  or  a  Baptist  from 
Rhode  Island,  or  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  New 
York,  or  a  heretic  not  belonging  to  any  sect. 

Near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  series 
of  religious  revivals  took  place  in  America  as  had 
begun  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  and  for  that 
matter  across  Asia,  since  great  moral  upheavals 
moved  the  old  imperfect  religions  as  far  away  as 
Pekin  and  Manchuria.  As  early  as  1734  Jonathan 
Edwards,  pastor  at  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  a 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  433 

graduate  of  Yale,  a  man  of  most  marked  mental  and 
spiritual  forces,  had  led  his  congregation  to  great 
intensity  of  the  religious  life,  large  numbers  being 
converted.  Among  the  first  converts  were  some  very 
vicious  persons  who  were  induced  to  a  better  life; 
others  were  aroused,  and  the  work  increased  until  out 
of  a  population  of  eleven  hundred  it  was  estimated 
that  in  six  months  three  hundred  were  thus  changed. 
The  revival  spread  beyond ;  Deerfield,  Enfield,  and  a 
score  of  other  towns  were  stirred ;  and  Northfield, 
to  give  in  the  next  century  D.  L.  Moody  to  the  Chris- 
tian church,  was  reached  by  the  movement.  Ac- 
counts of  it  were  published  in  England ;  John  Wesley 
wrote  in  his  Journal: 

"Surely  this  is  the  Lord's  doings  and  it  is  marvelous 
in  our  eyes/' 

Nor  was  it  confined  to  New  England.  For  out  to 
New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  the  excite- 
ment went.  Indeed,  before  the  work  of  Edwards,  the 
Tennents,  a  remarkable  family,  a  father  and  three 
sons,  coming  from  Ireland,  settled  at  Neshaming,  not 
far  from  Philadelphia.  There  they  built  a  rude  log 
house  which  they  opened  as  a  school  for  young  men 
for  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  That  log  college 
was  the  germ  of  Princeton  College.  This  family  be- 
came burning  lights,  their  students  catching  the  same 
spirit  so  that  the  revival  begun  north  by  Edwards  to 
be  doubly  successful  had  only  to  fuse  with  the  one 
already  going  on  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Tennents 
and  their  pupils  not  only  welcomed  the  revival  but 


434  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

also  Whitefield  in  his  flaming  tours.  With  Whitefield 
the  Tennents  and  Jonathan  Edwards  will  be  remem- 
bered as  the  leaders  in  this  Great  Awakening  in 
America  as  Wesley  and  others  are  remembered  in  the 
English  revival.  No  doubt  the  mental  and  spiritual 
uplift  as  well  as  the  increased  unity  of  sentiment 
aroused  by  these  revivals  in  the  colonies  prepared 
them  to  be  enduring  through  the  contests  following, 
the  French  and  Indian  War,  and  that  prolonged 
struggle  for  national  formation  and  national  inde- 
pendence. 

And  there  was  need  of  such  a  moral  and  religious 
revival,  for  on  the  other  hand  evil  forces  were  ter- 
ribly at  work.  The  low  state  of  education  left  men- 
tal vacuity,  the  lack  of  organized  churches  in  most  of 
the  communities,  and  the  fewness  of  ministers,  left 
great  sections  without  religious  influences.  Scepti- 
cism grew,  immorality  prevailed,  men  gloried  in  their 
departure  from  the  straight  paths  of  their  fathers. 
A  blight  in  morals  and  religion  had  spread  over  the 
land.  The  gangrene  of  slavery  was  at  work  and  New 
England  rum  fostered  an  increasing  curse  of  intem- 
perance. The  revival  helped  to  change  all  this,  set- 
ting men  by  the  ten  thousand  on  the  other  way. 

Still  education  had  not  been  wholly  neglected.  In 
England  gifts  to  Virginia  had  been  made  for  this 
object.  So  scattered  were  the  colonists  that  schools 
were  poorly  sustained.  The  College  of  William  and 
Mary,  founded  in  1692,  was  carried  on  with  certain 
proofs  of  success.  Harvard  for  scores  of  years  had 
been  blessing  New  England.  With  the  opening  of 
the  new  century  ten  venerable  men  meeting  at  Brad- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  435 

ford,  Connecticut,  each  laying  down  a  few  books  said, 
"I  give  these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college  in 
this  colony."  Thus  Yale  began  in  1702.  Schools 
of  lower  grades,  partly  on  the  plan  of  free  schools, 
later  to  be  the  glory  of  the  nation,  were  set  up, 
especially  at  the  north.  Private  schools  were  not 
uncommon  while  many  ministers  taught  pupils  pri- 
vately, fitting  them  for  the  colleges  and  for  the  pro- 
fessions. Europe  was  constantly  sending  over  cul- 
tured men  who  did  not  leave  the  professions  wholly 
unsupplied. 


CHAPTER  XLV 

During  the  decades  before  the  Revolutionary  War 
the  great  denominations  mostly  assumed  forms  lead- 
ing to  the  vast  growth  later  to  be  attained.  In  the 
southern  colonies,  mostly  founded  by  the  upper 
classes  of  England,  the  Anglican  Church  was  set  up 
as  the  state  church  as  at  home,  one  purpose  usually 
stated  in  the  charters  being  to  establish  the  "true 
Christian  faith  and  religion  as  now  professed  in  the 
Church  of  England."  In  New  England  the  domi- 
nant sect  was  the  Congregationalists,  their  polity  and 
doctrine  largely  patterned  after  the  little  colony  at 
Plymouth.  Under  this  influence  the  churches  stood 
together  for  divine  service  without  ritual,  for  an  edu- 
cated ministry,  and  for  a  unit  of  self-government  in 
each  congregation.  But  the  stout  Calvinism  was 
being  met  by  a  stout  Arminianism.  Finally  the 
Arminian  doctrines  became  the  practical  teaching  of 
all  the  American  churches. 

The  class  of  people  founding  the  Presbyterian 
church  was  such  as  to  foretell  the  history  of  that 
great  denomination  in  America.  Scot  Covenanters 
fresh  from  the  bloody  persecutions  that  they  so 
keenly  felt  were  wrongs  against  soul  and  body,  came 
for  freedom.  Scot  Highlanders,  many  of  them  like 
the  Walloons  of  the  old  Turanian  hot-blooded  stock, 
earliest  settlers  of  western  Europe,  also  came  as 
Covenanters.  Scotch-Irish  flocked  in  from  the  north 
of  Ireland,  refugees  from  Protestant  persecutions. 

436 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  437 

Among  the  educated  ministers  sent  from  the  old 
country  was  John  Cuthbertson  from  the  Presbytery 
of  Scotland.  He  nobly  did  the  circuit  act  before 
that  way  became  popular  with  the  Methodists.  This 
man  formed  an  immense  circuit  through  central 
Pennsylvania  as  far  west  as  Pittsburg  and  went  east- 
ward out  of  the  bounds  of  his  circuit  to  Rhode  Island. 
In  one  year  he  preached  on  one  hundred  twenty  days 
and  rode  horseback  twenty-five  hundred  miles,  cross- 
ing unbridged  streams,  through  unbroken  forests,  in 
danger  from  Indians  and  ferocious  beasts,  storms, 
cold  and  snow.  At  such  work  this  tireless  preacher 
persisted  for  thirty-nine  years,  traveling  seventy 
thousand  miles,  baptizing  nearly  two  thousand  chil- 
dren and  marrying  two  hundred  forty  couples. 

The  Baptist  Dissenters  in  England  were  forced  to 
be  Dissenters  on  coming  to  America.  Hoping  in  the 
new  country  to  find  freedom  for  their  peculiar  tenets 
they  were  to  be  disappointed  not  only  in  New  Eng- 
land but  in  some  other  colonies.  Roger  Williams  had 
been  driven  out  for  teaching  that  not  infants  should 
be  baptized  but  adults  and  they  believers.  The  first 
president  of  Harvard  College,  Henry  Dunster,  was 
compelled  to  resign,  owing  to  his  views  on  baptism. 
Finally  the  Baptists  built  a  church  in  Boston  cost- 
ing sixty  pounds,  but  on  its  occupancy  a  great  hub- 
bub arose,  their  leading  men  were  brought  before  the 
court  and  as  no  laws  were  found  against  them  the 
court  proceeded  to  enact  such  laws,  shutting  the 
church  when  the  poor  Baptists  had  to  worship  out  of 
doors.  But  after  some  years  of  persecution  and  op- 
pression they  were  permitted  to  build  in  Puritan  Bos- 


438  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ton.  In  New  York  and  Virginia  and  farther  south 
they  suffered  disgraceful  treatment.  As  later  in  the 
eighteenth  century  they  pushed  westward  into  Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana  and  Missouri,  their  ministers  were 
arrested  and  abused.  The  tireless  itinerants  sought 
out  the  scattered  people,  frequented  social  gather- 
ings, fairs,  markets,  musters,  going  anywhere  they 
could  meet  people  and  preach  to  them.  When  put 
into  prison  they  preached  to  the  crowds  collected  at 
the  windows.  Everywhere  possible  they  organized 
churches.  One  Clark,  converted  in  a  Methodist 
meeting,  later  joined  the  Baptists  and  went  on  foot 
preaching  in  Kentucky  and  when  presented  with  a 
horse  soon  gave  it  away.  To  Missouri  and  Illinois  he 
went,  swimming  streams,  hunting  up  the  scattered 
people,  if  lost  in  the  woods  sleeping  under  a  covering 
of  boughs. 

The  treatment  of  the  Quakers  in  Massachusetts  is 
a  story  the  reading  world  would  be  glad  had  never 
occurred.  The  first  Quakers  in  Boston  outraged  de- 
cency as  in  some  instances  they  had  done  in  England. 
But  that  four  persons,  one  of  them  a  woman,  should 
be  hung  for  fanatic  actions  entitling  them  to  a  place 
in  bedlam  rather  than  to  the  hangman's  knot,  is  a 
dreadful  stain  upon  the  brilliant  page  of  New  Eng- 
land colonization.  But  finally  the  sober  sense  of  the 
people  at  large  rescinded  the  fateful  law  that  mur- 
dered Quakers  as  it  did  the  one  murdering  witches. 
The  last  Quaker  punished  suffered  whipping  in  1667. 
Freedom  came  to  them  in  1691  under  the  charter  of 
William  Third.  In  states  south  of  New  England 
they  were  also  outrageously  treated.  When  settling 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  439 

in  New  Jersey  they  held  religious  meetings  at  Bur- 
lington in  a  tent  before  a  building  was  erected.  Says 
Bancroft : 

"Neither  faith  nor  wealth  nor  race  was  respected. 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  West  New  Jersey,  and  in  some 
measure  Rhode  Island  and  North  Carolina  were  Quaker 
states." 

The  Catholics  in  Maryland,  after  being  dominated 
for  a  while  by  Puritan  bigotry,  were  able  by  the  help 
of  the  powerful  family  founding  it  to  regain  their 
rights.  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  a  very  prom- 
inent Catholic  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence exerted  great  influence  for  them.  Liv- 
ing to  the  age  of  ninety-six  till  1832,  he  was  the  last 
of  those  signing  that  immortal  document.  Grad- 
ually in  spite  of  the  penal  laws  against  them  the 
Catholics  started  church  organizations  in  most  of 
the  large  cities.  Their  superb  church  organization 
was  most  valuable  but  down  to  the  Revolution  only 
feeble  results  were  reached. 

The  teachings  of  Universalism  that  "the  final  holi- 
ness of  all  men  through  the  grace  of  God  was  revealed 
in  Jesus  Christ,"  like  other  shades  of  religious  be- 
liefs and  life,  found  a  place  in  America.  From  the 
start  it  was  a  religion  of  free  thinking.  A  few 
preachers  here  and  there  in  the  colonies  as  well  as 
obscure  sects  believed  in  that  doctrine.  Some  be- 
lieved in  the  restoration  of  all,  even  the  lost  souls 
in  hell.  Now  and  then  some  pastor  was  dismissed 
for  these  declarations  and  the  Presbyterian  synods 
in  the  central  colonies  took  action  against  such 
teachings  among  their  people. 


440  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

The  stout  Governor  Stuyvesant  forbade  conven- 
ticles in  Manhattan  since  all  not  belonging  to  the 
Reformed  Church  were  so  considered.  But  gradually 
other  denominations  found  a  place  in  the  city  and 
when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  British  the  gover- 
nors tried  to  set  up  exclusively  the  Anglican  Church 
in  spite  of  the  liberal  laws.  The  other  sects  being 
largely  in  the  majority  were  led  in  resistance  to  this 
course  by  the  Dutch,  who  bravely  stuck  for  their 
rights.  At  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  province  had  fifty  churches,  one-half  of  them 
Dutch  Reformed.  To  educate  their  young  men  they 
founded  Rutgers  College,  locating  it  at  New  Bruns- 
wick, New  Jersey,  to  accommodate  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  In  the  Revolutionary  War  the  thea- 
ter of  campaigning  was  mostly  where  the  Dutch 
Church  had  grown  up  so  that  their  congregations 
were  scattered  and  their  churches  destroyed.  In 
spite  of  this  these  people  sent  a  memorial  in  1780 
to  the  New  York  Legislature  declaring  the  war  just 
and  necessary. 

Not  till  New  York  was  occupied  by  the  English 
could  the  Lutherans  form  church  organizations. 
But  they  had  already  started  churches  in  liberal 
Pennsylvania,  and  begged  the  old  country  for  pas- 
tors learned  and  well  versed  in  the  Scriptures  to 
lead  their  children  in  conduct  and  in  conversation. 
Lutheranism  stood  for  a  religious  life  that  was 
humble,  devout,  unobtrusive,  joyous  and  buoyant, 
living  in  mystical  union  with  God.  Count  Zinzendorf, 
the  great  leader  of  the  Moravians,  came  into  Penn- 
sylvania organizing  his  conference  and  teaching  his 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  441 

peculiar  tenets.  This  caused  the  Lutherans  to  send 
to  Europe  for  some  one  to  counteract  the  Count's 
work,  resulting  in  the  coming  of  Muhlenberg,  who 
became  an  apostle  to  the  Dutch  in  that  colony  and 
beyond. 

Methodism  was  one  of  the  latest  denominations 
to  become  started  in  America  before  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  Among  some  Irish  Palatines  was  a  local 
preacher,  Philip  Embury,  and  a  remarkable  woman, 
Barbara  Heck.  Many  of  these  people  before  ex- 
emplary became  profane  and  drunken,  falling  also 
into  other  vices.  She  appealed  to  Embury  to  preach 
to  these  immigrants  and  in  his  own  house  with  an 
audience  of  four  people  he  set  up  Methodism  in 
America.  That  was  in  1766.  Captain  Webb,  bar- 
rack master  at  Albany,  hearing  of  them,  himself 
made  a  local  preacher  by  Wesley,  came  to  New  York 
and  preached  for  them  in  full  uniform.  Webb  in- 
duced Wesley  to  send  preachers  for  the  rising  work, 
first  Pilmoor  and  Boardman  and  in  1772  Francis 
Asbury,  who  was  to  become  first  bishop  in  that  great 
sect  in  America.  Soon  a  conference  was  called  at 
Philadelphia,  having  ten  ministers  representing  over 
eleven  hundred  members,  with  a  network  of  circuits 
extending  over  most  of  the  colonies.  No  doubt 
the  religious  intensity  aroused  by  these  evangelists 
aided  the  colonists  to  endure  the  great  stress  of  the 
Revolutionary  War.  As  the  war  opened  several  of 
the  preachers  returned  to  England  but  Asbury  re- 
mained. 

As  the  various  states  proceeded  to  frame  their 
own  constitutions  there  was  a  universal  purpose  that 


442  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

religious  beliefs  and  practices  should  be  free.  In 
the  Virginia  Convention  the  first  draft  suggested 
toleration  of  all  religions.  Madison  objected  to 
the  word  toleration  as  implying  an  established  re- 
ligion, rather  having  said,  as  was  adopted,  "All 
men  are  equally  entitled  to  the  free  service  of  re- 
ligion according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience." 
Jefferson  declared,  "God  hath  created  the  mind  free, 
and  to  suffer  the  civil  magistrate  to  introduce  his 
power  into  the  field  of  opinion  destroys  all  religious 
liberty."  In  Maryland  the  old  bitter  contest  be- 
tween Catholics  and  Protestants  was  allayed  by  the 
new  struggle  so  that  the  Legislature  made  all  equal 
in  the  law.  In  South  Carolina  although  being  set- 
tled near  the  coast  by  loyal  Englishmen  and  the 
uplands  more  by  those  who  had  a  grievance,  the  sects 
in  final  adjustment  were  practically  granted  equality. 
Nearly  the  same  situation  was  in  North  Carolina, 
where  the  religious  scruples  of  the  upland  people 
termed  Regulators  had  to  be  heeded.  When  Rhode 
Island  in  the  final  touches  of  its  new  constitution 
found  that  a  clause  of  its  old  charter  remained,  dis- 
franchising Catholics,  it  was  promptly  stricken  out. 
Intensely  patriotic  Vermont  when  it  applied  in  vain 
for  admittance  into  the  new  confederacy  required 
every  denomination  to  observe  the  Lord's  day  by 
keeping  up  some  form  of  worship,  and  further  that 
its  representatives  to  the  Legislature  should  declare 
their  belief  in  God,  in  the  Scriptures,  and  in  the 
Protestant  religion.  In  Connecticut  and  other  New 
England  states  the  new  Legislatures  were  slow  to 
change  the  property  relations  from  an  establishment 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  443 

to  full  equality  of  the  denominations  but  in  all  it 
was  gradually  reached.  Still,  taxes  to  support  the 
standing  order  were  insisted  on  for  a  space  into  the 
nineteenth  century.  , 

The  Continental  Congress  as  far  as  it  was  cap- 
able of  doing  so  brushed  aside  the  favors  to  any 
one  sect  by  the  colonial  laws.  The  Federal  Con- 
stitution and  the  First  Amendment  to  it  precluded 
forever  any  establishment  of  religion  in  America. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  Gladstone  from  his  high  insight 
and  broad  statesmanship  could  say: 

"As  the  British  Constitution  is  the  most  subtile  or- 
ganization which  has  proceeded  from  progressive  his- 
tory, so  the  American  Constitution  is  the  most  wonder- 
ful work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain 
and  purpose  of  man." 

Says  a  historian : 

"The  American  Revolution  was  but  the  application 
of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  to  civil  govern- 
ment." 

The  influence  of  the  American  Revolution  upon 
Europe  was  immediate  and  marked.  The  scepticism 
in  France  was  greatly  lessened  by  the  devout  trust 
in  God  shown  by  the  Americans.  The  Emperor  of 
Austria,  impelled  by  the  example  of  liberty  in  the 
new  republic,  proclaimed  freedom  of  religion  in  his 
dominion.  The  separation  of  church  and  state  in 
France  marking  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth 
century,  the  steps  toward  it  in  Spain,  are  alike 


444  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

brought  forward  by  the  success  of  such  separation 
in  America. 

With  independence  gained,  the  national  expansion 
may  be  said  truly  to  have  begun.  What  was  but  a 
drizzle  over  the  Alleghanies  before  the  Revolution- 
ary War  now  became  a  flood.  The  emigrants  nur- 
tured in  eastern  homes  and  under  the  influence  of 
an  older  community  took  with  them  the  high  prin- 
ciples of  their  eastern  culture  and  progress. 
Schouler  writes,  "The  immigrant  west  took  with  him 
his  implements,  a  strong  arm,  and  a  stout  heart  and 
a  loving  helpmeet,  and  God  over  all.  These  were 
his  dependence  and  his  thought." 

Not  alone  the  Baptist  itinerary  went  with  the  set- 
tlers over  the  mountains.  The  Methodist  itinerants 
were  sent  along  even  before  the  fullness  of  the  migra- 
tion. Following  them  as  early  as  1788  Bishop  As- 
bury  crossed  the  mountains,  organized  a  Conference 
out  of  those  tireless  itinerants  at  Keyswoods,  Ten- 
nessee, appointing  them  to  extend  circuits  over  all 
the  region.  These  men  did  the  adventurous  work 
of  hunting  out  the  families,  preaching  the  gospel, 
building  rude  churches,  marrying  the  young  couples, 
burying  the  dead.  But  even  before  these  itinerants 
local  preachers  were  at  work  through  much  of  the 
region.  Let  three  of  them,  William  Shaw,  Thomas 
Lakin,  and  John  Jacobs  be  honored  in  history  for 
their  superior  preaching  powers  and  vast  heroic 
toil.  The  people  dubbed  them  the  three  bishops. 
Other  denominations  also  did  noble  work  in  the 
new  west,  one  minister  often  having  charge  of  two 
or  more  congregations,  adopting  in  fact  the  itine- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  445 

rant  system  of  the  Methodists.  In  some  instances  a 
community  or  a  village  in  the  east  would  almost 
entirely  pass  together  to  the  west  taking  with  them 
their  pastor  and  schoolmaster.  Thus  in  1817  there 
passed  through  Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  a  train 
of  sixteen  wagons  from  Durham,  Maine,  with  a  hun- 
dred twenty  people  with  their  pastor,  for  Ohio. 

More  formidable  to  the  emigrants  than  mountains 
or  prairies  or  swollen  rivers  were  the  native  races, 
savages  with  human  instincts  and  backward  ethics. 
They  deemed  themselves  owners  of  the  country,  its 
broad  hunting  grounds  and  rivers  of  fish.  The 
general  government  and  mostly  the  territorial 
governments  made  treaties  with  the  tribes  to  find 
them  again  and  again  infringed  and  broken  either  by 
the  Indians  or  by  the  imperious,  avaricious  whites. 
In  vain  did  Washington  and  after  him  other  presi- 
dents labor  to  do  justice  to  the  tribes  throughout 
the  middle  west.  At  an  early  time  a  territory  was 
planned  for  them  exclusively  where  they  could  be 
the  wards  of  the  general  government  alone.  Grad- 
ually after  bloody  wars  the  decimated  tribes  were 
forced  into  that  territory.  The  natives  once  re- 
moved to  the  Territory  were  given  schools,  teachers, 
missionaries.  But  the  high  spirit  of  those  splendid 
savages  could  poorly  appreciate  even  the  paternal 
interest  of  the  government  and  the  Christian  inter- 
est of  the  missionaries.  The  cattle  given  by  the 
government  for  stock  raising  they  would  kill  and 
eat,  while  the  farming  machinery  sent  them  they 
would  break  up  and  use  for  fuel. 

Not  only  among  the  tribes  collected  in  the  Terri- 


446  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

tory  did  the  churches  establish  missions,  but  among 
those  still  scattered  over  the  west.  For  these  pur- 
poses the  Catholics  with  their  traditions  for  kind- 
liness among  the  natives  had  special  success,  as  did 
the  Quakers  with  similar  traditions  in  Pennsylvania 
and  elsewhere.  The  old  story  of  missionaries  sacri- 
ficed by  exposure  and  zeal  was  here  and  there  re- 
peated. In  Oregon  a  whole  missionary  station  was 
thus  blotted  out  under  the  tomahawk  and  the  flam- 
ing torch.  A  few  tribes  were  so  hostile  that  mis- 
sions could  not  be  opened  among  them.  The  per- 
sistent, patient  toil  of  the  various  missionaries  has 
told.  By  the  twentieth  century  most  of  the  nations 
gathered  in  the  Territory  or  still  on  reservations  have 
more  or  less  accepted  Christianity.  It  remains  also 
for  the  same  century,  by  incorporating  the  Indian 
Territory  into  the  state  of  Oklahoma,  to  give  citizen- 
ship rights  to  the  natives  gathered  there,  to  allow 
land  and  permanent  place  and  to  put  the  ballot  in 
the  hands  of  ninety  thousand  aborigines.  An  Indian 
from  Kansas  sits  in  the  American  Congress. 


CHAPTER  XLVI 

The  free  religious  thought  and  practice  in  Amer- 
ica, not  having  ceased  from  colonial  times,  still  lead 
devout  souls  to  this  continent.  Most  of  the  world 
migrations  like  the  Celtic  and  Teutonic  to  western 
Europe  are  hidden  in  the  dimness  of  prehistoric  time. 
But  the  one  now  thronging  America  is  in  modern 
knowledge  and  open  vision.  Railways  and  steam- 
boats superseding  the  ox  team  and  camel  and  horse, 
have  made  it  possible  for  a  million  a  year  to  cross 
continents  and  oceans  to  reach  this  land  of  promise. 

These  immigrants  are  mostly  from  lands  with  a 
thousand  years  of  civilization  and  Christianity. 
Throngs  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  of  the 
Greek  church  have  hurried  to  our  shores.  Among 
them  are  some  sceptical  free  thinkers  and  even  avowed 
atheists.  Nearly  all  are  deficient  in  the  principles 
of  free  institutions  and  the  spirit  of  our  evangelical 
Christianity.  They  have  quietly  exerted  an  ex- 
pansive force  on  the  American  spirit.  The  Puri- 
tanism of  the  north  had  kept  the  vision  narrow  in 
that  part  of  the  country,  while  at  the  south  slavery 
had  hindered  progress  along  best  lines.  Influences 
brought  by  the  migrants  have  been  active  in  chang- 
ing these  things.  The  religious  life  has  largely 
ceased  to  be  sectional  and  provincial.  The  Amer- 
ican Sabbath  is  in  a  fair  way  to  be  lost  since  such 
a  vast  European  influence  has  come  to  this  country. 

Possibly    some    of   the    Puritan    exactions    were    of 

447 


448  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

human  make  instead  of  coming  from  heaven's  will, 
but  as  a  holy  day  it  is  passing.  The  Jews,  observing 
another  day  as  the  Sabbath,  are  clamoring  for  legal 
rights  to  work  on  Sunday.  The  Second  Advents 
put  in  similar  claim.  Other  undesirable  elements 
have  been  brought  oversea  by  the  immigrants. 

During  the  earlier  movement  little  systematic  at- 
tention was  given  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  these  in- 
coming floods.  But  in  the  later  decades  the  churches 
represented  in  the  lands  from  which  so  many  have 
been  coming  have  done  nobly  to  meet  the  religious 
needs  of  their  people  on  their  arrival  in  the  United 
States.  The  superior  organization  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  been  used  with  good  effect  in 
meeting  the  foreigners  of  that  sect.  A  similar  effort 
all  along  has  been  put  forth  by  the  Lutherans  to 
meet  the  needs  of  those  of  that  faith,  their  success 
also  having  been  most  noble.  As  the  Jews  have 
flocked  to  America  from  the  bloody  persecutions  of 
Russia  and  other  lands  their  people  already  in  Amer- 
ica have  used  great  sums  to  aid  those  seeking  a  land 
of  liberty  and  rights.  Other  sects  organized  in  the 
old  world  have  done  much  to  meet  their  fellow  wor- 
shipers as  they  landed  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
alarming  to  think  what  would  be  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  these  masses  had  not  the  churches  met 
them  with  familiar  ministrations.  Most  of  the  sects 
already  established  in  the  United  States  had  a  fatal 
spirit  of  letting  the  immigrants  alone.  Probably 
the  American  principle  that  one  denomination  should 
not  actively  proselyte  another,  carried  out  in  this 
country  as  nowhere  else,  caused  this  neglect. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  449 

But  the  various  churches  are  awakening  to  the 
fact  that  after  all  done  by  the  Catholics  and  the 
Lutherans  and  by  the  Greek  Church  much  more 
should  be  done  to  evangelize  these  masses  flooding 
America.  To  this  end  many  influences  have  lately 
been  set  in  motion.  Representatives  of  more  than 
thirty  denominations  meet  the  migrants  at  Ellis 
Island,  New  York,  to  help  them  in  the  new  condi- 
tions. People  are  addressed  in  their  native 
tongues,  are  aided  in  getting  onward  to  their  destina- 
tion, have  the  New  Testament  and  tracts  in  their 
own  language  put  into  their  hands,  direction  given 
to  churches  and  to  other  religious  helps.  What  is 
done  at  Ellis  Island  is  done  more  or  less  fully  at 
other  great  ports  of  entrance,  Philadelphia,  San 
Francisco,  Boston,  Baltimore.  Missions  are  being 
established  in  the  congested  slums,  college  settle- 
ments, temperance  houses,  deaconess'  homes,  in- 
stitutional churches,  libraries  set  up,  and  other 
beneficent  projects  to  bring  forward  these  people 
to  better  life  and  ways.  Besides  these  special  plans 
of  good  to  the  foreign  people  a  constant  ingather- 
ing to  the  churches  all  over  the  land  is  going  on. 

The  fateful  visit  to  Jamestown  in  1619  of  the 
Dutch  man-of-war  to  sell  blacks  as  slaves  was  not 
wholly  welcomed  by  the  colonists,  but  the  slave  trade 
and  the  use  of  slaves  by  the  plantation  owners  were 
made  obligatory  by  the  home  government.  The  evil 
genius  then  let  loose  has  from  that  day  to  this  been 
an  ominous  presence  in  American  life.  Other  colo- 
nies followed  Virginia.  Ship  owners  in  New  England 
engaged  in  the  nefarious  traffic.  Only  small  num- 


450  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

bers,  however,  were  used  in  the  northern  colonies. 
The  horrors  of  the  passage  to  America  prostitute 
the  words  that  would  be  used  to  describe  them.  In 
Pennsylvania  their  lot  was  ameliorated  so  they  were 
helped  to  mental  and  moral  uplift  and  were  pro- 
tected in  the  marriage  relation.  Not  only  were 
Negroes  and  Redskins  thus  enslaved  but  the  home 
government  picked  up  stray  children  on  the  streets 
of  London  and  other  cities  whom  they  sent  as  slaves 
to  the  colonies.  Convicts  and  even  prisoners  of  war 
were  sent  to  the  same  bondage. 

In  those  stirring  decades  the  Quakers  took  early 
steps  in  opposition  to  the  system.  The  German 
immigrants  in  Pennsylvania  tried  to  make  the  con- 
dition of  the  slaves  more  easy.  Through  the  in- 
fluence of  George  Fox  the  Quakers  of  that  colony 
were  forbidden  to  engage  in  importing  Negroes  and 
when  owning  them  were  to  use  them  well.  So  ear- 
nestly was  the  matter  pressed  that  by  1780  not  a 
single  slave  was  in  possession  of  a  Quaker.  In 
South  Carolina  the  Salzburgers  thought  it  right  to 
keep  slaves  if  their  Christianization  was  undertaken. 
As  the  Revolutionary  period  approached  with  its 
hot  insistence  of  rights  many  of  the  colonists,  more 
especially  at  the  North,  where  the  slave  labor  was  not 
very  remunerative,  grew  dissatisfied  with  slavery. 
In  spite  of  what  the  Quakers  had  done,  says  the  his- 
torian, L.  W.  Bacon : 

"The  great  anti-slavery  society  of  the  period  in  ques- 
tion was  the  Methodist  Society.  It  publicly  declared 
in  the  Conference  of  1780  that  slavery  is  contrary  to 
the  laws  of  God,  man  and  nature,  and  hurtful  to  so- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  451 

ciety;  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  pure 
religion,  adding,  that  which  we  would  not  that  others 
should  do  to  us  and  ours." 

As  time  passed  the  cleavage  between  slavery  and 
freedom  grew  broader  and  broader.  The  Christian 
consciousness  in  the  churches  and  out  of  them  came 
to  feel  more  and  more  that  what  was  morally  wrong 
could  not  be  made  legally  right.  As  the  struggle  be- 
irrepressjble  the  great  churches,  Presbyterian,  Metho- 
tween  freedom  and  slavery  became  intensified  and 
dist  and  Baptist,  taking  grounds  against  slavery, 
caused  the  sections  of  those  denominations  at  the 
south  to  separate  from  the  north  portions.  At  the 
south  men  appealed  to  the  Bible  in  support  of  their 
institution  by  that  claiming  their  cause  to  be  just. 
Many  of  the  abolitionists,  pleading  the  apathy  of 
the  churches,  impatient  that  God  should  be  under- 
stood as  allowing  such  evil,  drifted  into  infidelity. 
Gradually  it  became  the  absorbing  theme  in  all  life, 
social,  religious  and  literary,  while  in  politics  it 
stirred  a  very  blaze  of  conflict. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  the  churches  of  the 
north  sprang  forward  in  patriotic  defense  of  the 
union.  Pulpits  no  longer  gave  forth  an  uncertain 
sound.  No  longer  were  preachers  gagged.  As 
chaplains,  officers  in  the  line,  as  privates  in  the 
ranks,  they  went  to  the  war.  As  if  the  religious 
consciousness  had  been  too  long  suppressed,  Chris- 
tian men  along  with  others  rushed  to  the  front. 
Churches  and  devout  homes  were  denuded  of  their 
strong  men.  Into  camp  and  battle,  into  bivouac 
and  hospital,  they  carried  the  habit  of  prayer. 


452  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

Nor  was  it  less  a  religious  question  at  the  south. 
The  split  in  the  sects  twenty  years  before  over  the 
institution  had  intensified  the  spirit.  Now  it  was 
to  be  settled  by  the  awful  gauge  of  battle  on  more 
than  two  thousand  hard-fought  fields. 

With  the  blacks  at  last  made  free  by  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation  and  a  large  part  of  the  south 
occupied  by  Union  forces,  the  various  denominations 
of  the  north  entered  on  a  more  or  less  formed  pur- 
pose to  help  forward  the  liberated  slaves  in  the  vari- 
ous forces  of  civilization.  Teachers  were  sent  to 
open  schools  among  them,  chaplains  were  furnished 
their  temporary  villages,  work  was  given  them  in 
the  army.  During  the  decades  following,  the 
northern  churches  pushed  their  organized  work 
among  the  negroes,  founding  permanent  schools  and 
colleges,  putting  up  church  buildings,  educating 
teachers,  professional  men  and  preachers,  directing 
to  industrial  ways,  to  home  making,  and  to  a  thou- 
sand elements  of  a  better  life.  To  the  honor  of  the 
religious  sentiment  north  and  south,  if  slow  when 
these  people  were  slaves,  let  it  now  be  said  that  it 
is  doing  vastly  for  the  blacks.  High-minded  persons 
in  each  race  have  seen  that  both  must  rise  together. 
The  superb  individual  positions  attained  by  negroes 
in  business,  in  art,  poetry,  eloquence,  the  profes- 
sions, and  in  many  other  activities,  suggest  what 
could  be  reached  after  a  thousand  years  of  advance 
in  civilization.  They  are  intensely  patriotic,  lovers 
of  home  life,  pious.  At  the  Inter-church  Federation 
in  1905  it  was  declared  by  one  speaker  from  the 
south,  "No  man  in  this  audience  ever  saw  a  negro 
sceptic." 


CHAPTER  XL VII 

One  result  of  awakening  to  national  issues  in 
United  States  seems  to  have  been  that  drinking 
habits  were  doing  immense  harm,  detrimental  alike 
to  the  individual  and  to  the  public.  As  early  as 
1783  the  Methodist  Conference  placed  in  its  rules 
for  those  joining  the  societies  that  "to  make  spirit- 
uous liquors,  sell  or  drink  them  in  drams  is  wrong 
in  its  nature  and  consequences."  The  preachers  by 
teaching  and  example  were  to  lead  the  people  to  put 
away  the  evil.  Such  rule  was  but  the  repetition  of 
the  rule  given  forth  a  half  a  century  before  at 
Wesley's  Conference  in  England.  The  blasting 
effects  of  the  evil  caused  local  temperance  societies 
to  be  formed  in  different  sections  of  the  country,  so 
that  by  1826  when  the  American  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Temperance  was  started  in  Boston, 
the  movement  quickly  assumed  a  national  phase. 

Various  religious  sects  began  following  the 
Methodists.  The  Presbytery  of  Cayuga  in  1813 
took  ground  in  favor  of  temperance  societies.  In- 
vestigations into  poverty  conditions  by  the  Humane 
Society,  first  in  Philadelphia  and  soon  in  New  York, 
showed  that  one-seventh  of  the  population  lived  on 
charity,  and  that  of  this  number  seven-eighths  fell 
to  that  place  through  strong  drink.  No  less  than 
eighteen  hundred  licensed  saloons  were  active  in 
New  York.  The  first  national  convention  was  in 
1833  at  Philadelphia  with  four  hundred  forty  dele- 

453 


454  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

gates  from  twenty-two  states.  The  principle  of 
total  abstinence  was  not  formally  recognized  till  the 
national  convention  at  Saratoga  in  1836.  Soon 
after  this  the  Washington  movement  began  in  Balti- 
more. Its  growth  was  phenomenal.  At  the  first 
anniversary  a  thousand  reformed  men  were  in  pro- 
cession at  Baltimore.  The  movement  spread  far 
beyond  that  city  and  men  by  the  ten  thousand  were 
reformed. 

The  movement  was  to  receive  two  important  helps. 
John  B.  Gough  signed  the  pledge,  coming  at  once 
before  the  public  as  a  temperance  speaker  of  un- 
rivaled powers  whose  fiery  appeals  led  thousands  to 
abandon  their  cups.  A  few  years  later  that  Catho- 
lic apostle  of  temperance,  Father  Mathew,  came  to 
America,  spending  two  years  going  through  all  parts 
of  the  country  and  inducing  his  native  countrymen 
and  others  in  great  numbers  to  adopt  temperance 
ways.  The  Good  Templars  and  Rechabites  gained 
national  growth  and  greatly  fostered  the  cause.  A 
World's  Temperance  Convention,  a  large  and  im- 
portant gathering,  in  1853  met  in  New  York.  The 
temperance  movement  was  first  taken  into  politics 
in  1869  by  the  formation  of  the  national  Prohibi- 
tion party.  Three  years  later  James  Black  was 
nominated  for  President  but  secured  only  a  few  thou- 
sand votes.  Since  that  time  the  party  each  presi- 
dential year  has  put  a  candidate  into  the  field. 

One  of  the  mightiest  forces  for  temperance  in 
America  is  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Un- 
ion. What  was  denominated  the  Ohio  Crusade  be- 
gun at  Hillsboro,  December,  1873,  when  one  woman, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  455 

Mrs.  Eliza  Thompson,  led  others  to  join  with  her 
and  then  in  a  body  proceeded  to  the  saloons  re- 
monstrating with  the  occupants  and  obtaining  leave 
to  sing  hymns  and  to  pray  in  the  barrooms.  This 
method  of  combating  the  evils  of  liquor  selling 
spread  from  that  beginning  over  all  the  states  until 
thousands  of  saloons  were  prayed  out  of  existence. 
Following  such  a  beginning  of  the  Crusade,  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  was  organ- 
ized, thus  projecting  against  the  saloon  a  new  force 
for  God  and  Home  and  Native  Land.  It  was  most 
fortunate  early  in  the  history  of  the  movement  that 
Frances  E.  Willard  was  placed  at  the  head  of  it,  a 
woman  marked  with  great  executive  ability,  by  un- 
wavering Christian  faith,  of  winning  personality, 
and  of  high  oratorical  powers.  Under  her  active, 
dominating  genius  the  organization  was  soon  estab- 
lished in  all  the  states  and  territories,  and  national 
conventions  crowded  by  thousands  were  held  each 
year.  In  1883  the  World's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  was  organized  by  her.  The  work  in  United 
States  has  more  than  forty  departments  of  activity, 
thus  covering  broad  fields  and  bringing  varied  tal- 
ents into  play,  using  public  speakers,  the  press,  peti- 
tion to  Legislatures  and  Congress,  with  no  end  of 
toil  and  persistence.  Of  special  worth  has  been  the 
introduction  of  Scientific  Temperance  Instruction 
into  the  public  schools  of  all  the  states  and  terri- 
tories, using  carefully  prepared  text-books.  It  being 
found  that  even  good  laws  for  temperance  needed 
careful  enforcement,  the  Anti-saloon  League  has  later 
been  organized  in  many  of  the  states,  its  object 


456  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

being  to  see  that  existing  laws  are  enforced  with 
new  and  better  ones  attained.  It  is  doing  a  mighty 
work  with  ever-increasing  powers,  one  proof  of  its 
effectiveness  being  that  everywhere  the  liquor  inter- 
ests are  fighting  it. 

Americans  have  always  recognized  the  living  re- 
lation between  religion  and  education.  Man's  im- 
material structure  is  one.  To  develop  his  whole 
powers  broad  culture  touching  every  faculty  needs 
to  be  obtained.  From  the  time  of  the  earliest  col- 
onists educational  institutions  paid  heed  to  religious 
demands,  whether  private  schools  for  beginners  or 
those  of  higher  studies  reaching  to  the  full-blown 
college.  Harvard,  William  and  Mary,  King's,  Yale, 
and  others  were  church  colleges  from  the  start. 
Gradually  denominational  lines  were  mostly  obliter- 
ated so  that  freedom  of  attendance  was  unhindered. 

One  hundred  fifty  colleges  for  women  only  and 
the  doors  open  to  them  in  almost  all  the  other  col- 
leges and  universities  in  the  land  have  presented  to 
American  women  chances  for  usefulness  and  progress 
never  before  offered  to  woman.  Woman,  said  to  be 
more  devout  than  man,  has  greatly  aided  in  the 
kindlier,  purer  elements  of  modern  civilization.  Fol- 
lowing the  lead  of  Denison  and  Toynbee  in  London 
the  American  colleges  have  founded  college  settle- 
ments. The  first  in  United  States  was  founded  in 
New  York,  1889,  being  started  by  women  graduates 
of  several  colleges.  These  settlements  take  the  good 
ways  of  life  and  the  helpful  uplift  to  better  things 
and  the  teachings  of  Jesus  to  the  poor,  the  vice- 
smitten  and  ignorant  of  the  slums. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  457 

Many  of  the  colleges  of  the  country  are  built  up 
and  carried  on  by  the  churches  in  which  are  strong 
religious  influences.  About  one  hundred  fifty  col- 
leges with  twenty  thousand  students  are  thus  con- 
ducted. Besides  these  colleges  many  of  the  secondary 
schools  are  under  control  of  some  of  the  sects.  In  the 
parochial  schools  of  the  Episcopalians,  the  Catholics, 
the  Lutherans  and  others,  are  taught  their  own  tenets 
and  the  positive  truths  of  the  Bible.  Students  pass- 
ing from  the  various  secondary  schools,  whether 
the  high  schools  of  the  towns  and  cities  or  those  of 
the  churches,  are  usually  well  grounded  in  religious 
teachings  obtained  not  only  from  their  instructors 
but  from  their  parents  or  in  the  Sunday  Schools 
and  churches.  The  increase  of  church  membership 
among  college  students  during  a  hundred  years  is 
most  gratifying.  At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century  only  eight  percent,  of  college  students  were 
church  members,  at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century  careful  statistics  showed  fifty-three  percent, 
of  collegians  thus  related. 

An  indication  of  the  religious  life  in  America  is 
shown  by  the  large  number  of  theological  schools 
in  action.  In  the  colonial  colleges  little  attention 
was  paid  to  any  theological  teaching.  But  as  the 
denominations  took  form  they  saw  the  need  of 
theological  seminaries.  The  first  real  theological 
seminary  to  be  established  in  United  States  was  in 
1791  by  the  Sulpitian  Fathers  at  Baltimore.  In 
1808  the  Congregationalists  opened  one  at  Andover, 
Massachusetts,  followed  in  two  years  by  the  Dutch 
in  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  soon  to  be  followed 


458  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 

by  the  Presbyterians  at  Princeton,  by  this  com- 
pleting the  dream  of  Tennent's  Log  College.  In 
1819  the  Episcopal  Seminary  was  opened  and  within 
twenty  years  seventeen  others  by  the  various  de- 
nominations were  founded.  At  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century  no  less  than  one  hundred  sixty- 
three  theological  schools  were  teaching  thousands 
of  pupils.  Churches  have  been  better  served,  the 
Bible  more  broadly  comprehended,  scholarship  ele- 
vated, with  the  instruction  to  heart  and  brain. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 

The  isolated  cases  of  setting  up  Sunday  Schools 
before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  no 
means  foreshadowed  the  vast  growth  of  them  reach- 
ing down  to  the  present.  The  very  earliest  ones 
started  by  the  Dunkards  at  Ephrata  ceased  as  their 
schoolhouse  was  made  a  hospital  for  the  wounded 
at  the  Battle  of  Brandywine.  Asbury's  first  one 
of  1786  was  in  Hanover  County,  Virginia.  This  led 
to  a  vote  in  the  Methodist  Conference  of  1790  to 
proceed  to  their  organization  and  use.  They  were 
to  hold  from  six  to  ten  o'clock  and  in  the  after- 
noon from  two  to  six,  and  be  open  to  black  and  white 
alike.  But  they  soon  petered  out.  The  same  year 
the  Universalist  Convention  recommended  that 
schools  be  opened  on  Sunday  to  teach  the  children 
of  mechanics  and  laborers  reading,  writing,  cipher- 
ing and  the  singing  of  psalms.  Benjamin  Rush  was 
determined  that  they  should  not  be  dependent  upon 
any  creed  or  sect,  in  this  broad  view  being  sus- 
tained by  Bishop  White  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
but  these  plans  being  opposed  by  the  Quakers,  they 
failed. 

While  the  Puritan  opinions  in  New  England  of 
the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  led  to  customs  deeming 
a  stroll  on  that  day  or  picking  a  flower  to  be  sin- 
ful, that  section  of  the  country  was  slow  to  take 
up  the  Sunday  School  idea.  But  among  the  states 

generally  the  churches  awakened  to  the  worth  of  the 

459 


460  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

new  institution  and  organized  them.  Attempts  to 
use  paid  teachers  was  given  over  and  most  studies 
but  those  of  the  Bible  were  also  abandoned.  Volun- 
tary teachers  nobly  offered  their  services  in  the 
schools. 

Various  methods  were  used  to  establish  Sunday 
Schools  in  the  new  west.  Heroic  leaders  pushed  out 
among  the  pioneers,  toiling,  traveling,  some  to  en- 
large the  growth  of  their  own  denomination,  some 
out  of  love  for  God's  scattered  children.  The  Sun- 
day School  Union  has  done  nobly  in  establishing 
schools  without  respect  to  denomination.  Special 
missionaries,  superintendents  of  broad  fields,  the 
Methodist  circuit  rider  and  presiding  elder  were 
successful  in  establishing  Sunday  Schools.  Often 
such  schools  were  the  germ  of  a  church  that  soon 
followed  the  small  beginning. 

The  Chautauqua  plan  of  wide  study  grew  out  of 
a  Sunday  School  Teacher's  Institute  first  held  by 
John  H.  Vincent  and  others  on  the  banks  of  the  beau- 
tiful Lake  Chautauqua.  A  broader  culture  for  the 
Sunday  School  teachers  was  sought  in  that  organiza- 
tion. Of  worth,  too,  has  been  the  International 
Sunday  School  Associations  by  which  in  the  last 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  most  of  the  Sun- 
day Schools  of  Christendom  have  on  the  same  day 
studied  the  same  lesson.  The  Catholics  and  Hebrews 
have  not  affiliated  with  other  sects  in  using  the  In- 
ternational series  but  have  adopted  special  studies 
of  their  own. 

It  is  an  inspiring  fact  that  most  of  the  million 
and  a  half  of  Sunday  School  teachers  do  their  work 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  461 

unpaid,  except  with  the  sense  of  duty  done  to  the 
cause  of  the  Master.  Vast  numbers  of  these  men 
and  women  are  people  of  the  highest  college  and 
university  culture,  willing  to  put  that  culture  to  the 
service  of  the  Sunday  School.  The  child  in  this  age 
not  attending  Sunday  School  is  unfortunate  since 
it  is  one  of  the  highest  civilizing  forces  now  active. 
For  in  connection  with  the  direct  study  of  the  Bible 
are  many  valuable  activities,  temperance  societies, 
mission  study  at  home,  clubs,  brigades,  and  other 
organizations  to  interest  and  instruct.  Since  early 
in  the  nineteenth  century  distinctly  religious  teach- 
ings have  been  left  out  of  the  text-books  and  les- 
sons, and  while  further  on  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
in  the  public  schools  has  been  banished,  the  rise  of 
the  Sunday  School  seems  to  have  been  demanded  to 
teach  religion  to  the  oncoming  generations. 

Along  with  the  rise  of  the  Sunday  School  has  been 
a  remarkable  call  for  Bibles  and  their  wide  distribu- 
tion. In  1802  a  local  Bible  society  was  formed  in 
Philadelphia.  By  1816,  when  the  American  Bible 
Society  was  organized,  nearly  sixty  societies  were 
ready  to  join  the  new  purpose,  its  managers  repre- 
senting seven  different  denominations.  It  has  fol- 
lowed closely  in  the  steps  of  the  older  Bible  Society 
of  England.  The  first  year  the  copies  issued  by  the 
American  Society  were  about  six  thousand;  by  the 
opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  a  million  and  a 
half  copies  were  given  out  each  year.  Auxiliary 
societies  by  the  thousand  have  been  formed  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  United  States.  Joined  with  the  British 
society  the  issue  each  year  is  more  than  seven  million 


462  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

copies.  Its  agents,  nine  hundred,  are  as  ubiquitous 
as  the  missionaries.  It  is  now  printed  in  more  than 
four  hundred  languages  and  in  the  century  of  their 
work  the  societies  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  have 
sent  out  two  hundred  eighty  million  copies.  Every- 
where it  has  gone  the  Bible  has  wrought  its  magnif- 
icent mission,  lifting  life  still  higher,  aiding  in  en- 
largement of  knowledge,  helping  progress,  justice, 
freedom. 

Alongside  the  Bible  Society  has  run  the  Tract 
Society.  It  began  ten  years  later  than  the  Bible 
Society  and  since  its  beginning  has  prepared  tracts 
in  on,e  hundred  seventy-three  languages  using  each 
year  nearly  one  million  dollars.  Its  colporteurs  are 
in  all  parts  of  America  from  Alaska  to  Panama 
thence  southward  to  Patagonia.  It  is  put  into  the 
hands  of  landing  immigrants,  also  given  to  those 
men,  sometimes  of  foreign  speech  who  dig  coal  and 
iron,  mine  for  gold  and  silver,  run  the  harvest 
reapers  and  threshers,  or  harvest  rice  and  cotton 
in  southern  fields.  . 

One  glory  of  United  States  is  that  no  state  church 
has  been  established.  Religion  has  been  free.  If 
this  lack  of  a  state  church  has  been  cited  across 
the  sea  as  a  spawn  of  offensive  sects,  still  the  census 
reports  one  hundred  forty  denominations ;  in  Great 
Britain  with  its  establishment  there  is  said  to  be 
more  than  two  hundred  sects. 

Out  of  this  full  freedom  of  the  religious  life  some 
abnormal  growths  have  sprung  up.  Robert  Dale 
Owen  coming  from  the  old  country  purchased  a 
large  tract  of  land  in  Indiana,  setting  up  a  com- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  463 

munity  of  the  Trappist  sect.  But  their  loose  views 
of  wedded  life  turned  sentiment  adverse  to  them. 
This  aided  by  an  unhealthy  locality  and  the  igno- 
rance of  many  in  the  colony  caused  it  gradually  to 
decay.  Similar  fate  overtook  certain  communistic 
organizations,  as  the  Shakers  and  others. 

One  sect,  however,  begun  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  Mormons,  thrived  on  the 
absurd  claim  to  special  revelation  and  to  the  book 
of  Mormon  inscribed  on  golden  plates  by  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  America.  These  plates,  it  was 
claimed,  were  dug  out  of  the  ground  where  buried 
by  those  aboriginal  people.  After  various  attempts 
at  founding  a  colony,  finally,  under  the  vigorous 
leadership  of  Brigham  Young  they  started  the  city 
of  Nauvoo,  Illinois.  Their  foul  lives,  their  cheating 
methods  and  their  crimes  brought  them  into  armed 
conflict  with  the  people  about  them,  and  finally  the 
state  authorities  interfered.  A  fortunate  revela- 
tion sent  them  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  granted 
polygamy.  They  did  not  halt  till  they  crossed  the 
plains  and  mountains,  settling  in  the  valley  pf  the 
great  Salt  Lake.  They  laid  out  a  city,  gathered 
their  scattered  adherents,  sent  missionaries  to 
Europe  and  over  United  States  for  recruits. 
Plurality  of  wives  did  not  deter  bright  cultured 
women  from  going  to  Salt  Lake  City  with  these 
missionaries,  and  that  doctrine  enabled  leading  men 
to  follow  the  example  of  Brigham  Young  with  his 
nineteen  wives  and  three  score  children.  Their 
defiance  alike  of  decency  and  of  American  laws  has 
made  them  one  of  the  menacing  problems  of  Amer- 


464  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

lean  life.  In  the  political  field  several  of  the  west- 
ern states  are  dominated  by  them. 

The  rise  of  new  sects  has  been  grounded  on  va- 
rious causes.  The  Second  Advents,  looking  for  a 
speedy  coming  of  Christ  to  rule  on  the  earth,  arose 
out  of  an  exciting  prediction  of  William  Miller  who 
in  1843  thought  he  proved  from  Scripture  that  the 
second  advent  was  at  hand.  Though  failure  after 
failure  has  marked  the  dates  since  Miller's  time  for 
that  coming,  the  sect  has  surprising  vitality  and 
does  great  good.  Spiritualism  is  another  abnormal 
belief.  The  sum  of  sixty  thousand  dollars  was  left 
to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  by  Seybert  to  be 
used  in  investigating  it.  The  well-known  Professor 
Joseph  A.  Leidy  under  this  bequest,  after  extended 
and  careful  investigation,  found  spiritualism  to  be 
a  tissue  of  imposition.  Some  think  that  spiritualism 
is  not  in  the  realm  of  the  supernatural,  but  in  that 
of  the  natural,  which  with  mesmerism,  hypnotism  and 
allied  matters  is  under  natural  laws  not  yet  under- 
stood. Still  there  are  reported  to  be  one  hundred 
fifty  thousand  of  that  sect  in  United  States  and  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half  American  people  favorably  interested 
in  it.  More  than  six  hundred  of  its  organizations 
carry  forward  its  tenets. 

One  of  the  most  recent  sects  to  arise,  Christian 
Science,  found  a  competent  leader  in  Mrs.  Eddy, 
an  American  woman  of  great  power  to  influence 
people  and  to  obtain  money.  It  is  understood  that 
these  people  believe  there  is  no  illness,  but  that  one 
is  so  truly  a  part  of  God  that  pain  and  sickness  are 
imaginary.  Yet  death  seems  to  come  to  them  of 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  465 

all  ages  as  to  others  not  holding  their  notions. 
Their  organization  has  extended  over  much  of  the 
country,  and  in  1906  their  ornate  cathedral  in  Bos- 
ton, said  to  have  cost  two  million  dollars,  was  dedi- 
cated. People  by  the  ten  thousand  came  to  the 
dedication  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  eager 
longing  for  some  satisfactory  answer  to  questions 
touching  religious  matters  is  no  doubt  responsible 
for  the  rise  of  some  of  these  remarkable  forms  of 
belief. 

But  the  stability  of  the  religious  life  in  this  coun- 
try inheres  in  the  great  denominations  that  through 
all  the  history  of  the  nation  have  steadily  pursued 
their  way.  Churches,  colleges,  homes,  preaching,  Sun- 
day Schools,  pastoral  care,  home  mission  work,  have 
been  sustained  and  enlarged  through  their  powerful 
organization.  The  direct  personal  communion  with 
the  Heavenly  Father,  that  supremest  reach  of  the  re- 
ligious life,  has  been  fostered  by  them.  By  them 
every  avenue  of  expanding  growth  has  been  broadened 
and  smoothed.  Through  these  great  denominations 
personal  character  has  been  ennobled,  family  life 
lifted  to  a  higher,  purer  realm,  ways  opened  for  high 
genius  and  tireless  activity  as  well  as  good  done  to 
the  weakest  of  humanity. 

Out  of  the  Revolutionary  War  came  an  increased 
spirit  of  fraternity  and  charity  among  the  denomina- 
tions. All  had  suffered,  some  were  nearly  blotted 
out,  but  quick  to  recover.  They  helped  to  rally  a 
hopeful  tone  and  feeling  of  mutual  interest.  The 
church  life  was  well-nigh  universal.  The  Congrega- 
tionalists,  to  be  sure,  were  dominant  in  New  England, 


466  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

but  were  not  confined  to  that  locality.  The  Dutch 
and  Lutherans  had  a  leading  in  the  central  states 
while  farther  south  the  Episcopalians  and  Catholics 
were  getting  on  their  feet,  with  the  active  Baptists 
and  pushing  Methodists  soon  to  aid  in  welding  the 
far  separate  states  from  Maine  to  Georgia  and  over 
the  mountains  west  to  the  Mississippi.  The  Con- 
stitution making  the  religious  life  free  and  open  to 
all  was  soon  adopted,  the  various  state  laws  were 
gradually  conformed  to  this  requirement  and  the 
spirit  of  fraternity  grew  with  the  thrill  of  the  new 
national  life. 

But  all  along  there  had  been  many  instances  of 
this  spirit,  for  people  of  one  sect  had  thrown  open 
their  churches  to  people  of  another  sect,  ministers 
of  different  faiths  had  preached  for  each  other,  and 
on  slight  change  of  views  or  on  none  people  and 
pastors  had  gone  from  one  denomination  to  another. 
In  the  newly  settled  parts  of  the  country  a  minister 
of  a  sect,  if  differing  from  the  church  of  a  household, 
yet  was  welcomed  to  that  household.  At  last  the 
religious  consciousness  could  rejoice  in  its  freedom  on 
a  new  continent.  No  state  church,  no  union  with 
politics,  no  sect  dominating  the  others,  allowed  open 
progress  to  all  in  the  new  nation. 

Under  this  spirit  practical  steps  together  were 
taken.  In  1814  on  the  formation  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the  Congregationalists 
leading,  there  were  united  with  them  the  Presbyte- 
rians, the  Dutch  and  the  German  Reformed  Churches, 
this  union  of  work  continuing  nearly  forty  years 
when  the  last  three  sects  formed  missionary  societies 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  467 

of  their  own.  The  American  Bible  Society,  also, 
was  formed  by  representatives  from  most  of  the  de- 
nominations, as  was  the  American  Tract  Society. 
Revivals,  widespread  in  the  early  century  and  re- 
curring with  special  force  a  few  years  before  the 
Civil  War,  increased  the  fraternal  spirit.  The 
thousand  imperative  voices  in  that  war  for  aid  and 
sympathy  and  fellowship  had  a  high  power  in  bind- 
ing churches  together,  as  the  war  had  done  in  unit- 
ing the  separate  sections  of  the  country  into  one 
strong  nation.  The  great  conventions,  as  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  in  New  York  in  1876,  aided  the 
spirit  of  fraternity  in  this  country  and  beyond. 
Similar  results  came  from  the  sessions  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  of  those  of  the  Young 
People's  societies,  from  the  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ment, from  the  Ecumenical  Conferences,  and  other 
gatherings.  All  aided  and  increased  the  work  of 
the  churches,  fostered  philanthropic  enlargement, 
inspired  to  Christian  education. 

Among  the  denominations  is  a  union  of  effort 
made  in  certain  sections  for  local  missionary  or 
evangelistic  activity.  In  Maine  four  sects,  the 
Baptists,  Congregationalists,  Methodists,  Free  Bap- 
tists, have  united  in  a  free  federation  for  consider- 
ing questions  relating  to  founding  new  churches,  for 
mission  work  in  the  state,  to  arbitrate  in  conflicts 
arising  between  local  churches,  to  study  the  union 
of  depleted  churches,  and  other  issues  constantly 
arising.  Other  states  and  several  cities  have  fol- 
lowed suit.  In  Buffalo  all  the  churches  to  the  num- 
ber of  one  hundred  twenty-four  united  in  the  pur- 


468  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

pose  to  take  care  of  the  city  poor  and  from  this  ac- 
tion much  good  resulted.  Syracuse  with  nine  sects 
put  forth  united  efforts  for  the  moral  and  spiritual 
good  of  its  people.  In  almost  every  town,  though 
if  with  only  a  few  of  the  denominations  represented, 
union  services,  those  of  the  week  of  prayer  and 
Thanksgiving  as  well  as  others,  are  commonly  held. 

These  movements  prepared  the  way  for  the  latest, 
grandest  proposition  done  in  this  noble  spirit.  It 
was  more  than  a  dream  that  took  form  in  the  last 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  was  projected  into 
the  twentieth  century,  for  the  federation  of  the  Amer- 
ican churches.  As  early  as  1894  in  New  York,  at 
a  gathering  in  the  Madison  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  a  preliminary  organization  looking  toward 
a  national  federation  was  started.  The  next  year 
this  incipient  organization  met  in  Philadelphia  with 
broader  plans  and  E.  B.  Sanford  was  made  the 
secretary  to  push  the  purpose.  Out  of  these  smaller 
movements  gradually  grew  one  of  national  scope  so 
that  in  1902  the  first  meeting  of  the  wider  plans 
was  held  in  Washington.  There  a  call  was  made 
for  a  gathering  yet  broader  in  its  scope  three  years 
later  in  New  York.  At  the  Washington  Conference 
the  delegation  called  upon  President  Roosevelt  who 
at  once  said,  "Well,  there  is  a  plenty  of  targets  for 
all  to  shoot  at  without  shooting  at  one  another." 

The  Interchurch  Conference  or  Federation,  held 
in  New  York,  October  15-16,  1905,  was  a  gather- 
ing not  equaled  in  scope  and  catholicity  in  all  mod- 
ern Christianity.  In  it  were  gathered  delegates 
from  thirty  of  the  leading)  Protestant  denomina- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  469 

tions  of  United  States,  representing  twenty  millions 
of  church  members  and  many  millions  more  of 
those  interested  in  the  churches.  The  members 
claimed  no  authorities  over  constituent  bodies,  had 
no  creed  to  offer,  no  set  form  of  worship  to  pre- 
scribe, but  met  in  fellowship  and  catholicity,  in  love 
and  mutual  counsel,  seeking  means  for  encouraging  a 
higher  religious  life  in  churches  and  individuals  as 
well  as  uniting  for  a  better  civic  spirit.  They  dis- 
cussed the  evils  to  be  opposed,  the  saloon,  divorce, 
Sabbath  desecration,  child  labor,  the  social  evil,  the 
conflict  of  capital  and  labor.  Watchwords  were  Un- 
ion and  Evangelism,  while  on  a  banner  was  written, 
Co-operation,  Federation,  Love.  One  said  that  the 
four  notes  of  federation  were  mutual  recognition, 
mutual  forbearance,  mutual  service,  mutual  prayer. 
It  was  justly  regretted  by  some  of  the  speakers  that 
the  Universalists  and  Unitarians  were  not  invited  to 
meet  with  the  others.  Still  the  sturdy  antagonism 
of  the  centuries  were  seen  to  grow  decrepit,  giving 
way  to  a  new  life  of  fraternity  and  service  and  love. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 

With  the  rapidly  increasing  wealth  of  the  country 
came  a  mighty  wave  of  philanthropic  gifts.  The 
rich  lands  yielded  agricultural  wealth.  Mines  dis- 
gorged their  hidden  treasures.  Manufactures  were 
piling  up  riches.  Railroads  rolled  fortunes  into  the 
hands  of  their  owners.  Even  by  the  first  third  of 
the  century,  men  grown  rich  were  returning  masses 
of  this  wealth  to  the  people.  Colleges,  Universities, 
Theological  Schools,  Technical  Institutions  were 
founded  and  endowed.  Benefactions  have  touched 
all  grades  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  most  highly 
specified  university  courses.  Millions  have  freely 
been  placed  in  the  Chicago  University  by  John  D. 
Rockefeller.  Rich  men  have  founded  great  libra- 
ries. Foremost  among  these  is  Andrew  Carnegie  who, 
having  made  a  gigantic  fortune  in  America,  has 
founded  libraries  by  the  hundred  throughout  the 
land.  Picture  galleries  and  museums  have  laid  hold 
upon  the  world's  best  products. 

A  unique  benefaction  is  that  of  Mrs.  Russell  Sage 
who  has  placed  ten  million  dollars  in  a  foundation, 
the  object  being  the  improvement  of  social  and  liv- 
ing conditions  in  United  States.  By  its  means  there 
will  be  studied  the  causes  of  ignorance,  poverty  and 
vice,  with  suggestions  as  to  how  to  remedy  them. 
Hospitals  to  alleviate  human  suffering  and  to  re- 
store the  afflicted  have  so  appealed  to  people  of 

means  that  the  nation  is  blessed  with  them  in  all 

470 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  471 

its  cities  and  considerable  towns.  For  less  observ- 
ant needs  of  God's  children  vast  wealth  has  been 
poured  out.  While  riches  have  been  so  mightily  in- 
creased there  is  a  feeling  among  Americans  that 
much  of  them  should  be  consecrated  to  the  good  of 
humanity  and  to  the  glory  of  God. 

At  the  first  the  church  buildings  put  up  to  ac- 
commodate the  increasing  population  in  towns  and 
cities  and  throughout  the  more  densely  settled  parts 
of  the  country  were,  owing  to  restricted  means  or 
lack  of  taste  in  the  builders,  often  small  and  of  mean 
appearance.  But  as  numbers  and  wealth  have  in- 
creased new  churches  have  been  erected  of  noble 
architecture,  rich  and  commodious  in  design,  of 
great  cost,  to  which  the  people  have  freely  con- 
tributed. Great  ornate  cathedrals  by  those  sects 
requiring  such  buildings  have  been  put  up,  rivaling 
in  their  size  and  grandeur,  in  their  cost  and  beauty, 
the  vastest  piles  in  the  old  world.  If  the  poor  should 
feel  ill  at  ease  in  such  elegance,  more  cheaply  con- 
structed churches  have  everywhere  been  built,  while 
halls  and  rooms  of  every  possible  grade  to  capacious 
theaters  filled  with  vast  crowds  have  been  utilized 
for  worshipful  people.  The  religious  practices  in 
America  have  been  very  unconventional.  From  the 
widow's  mite  to  the  vast  sums  that  appear  dum- 
founding  in  their  magnificence  and  dimensions,  there 
has  always  been  a  freedom  and  a  continual  tide  of 
giving.  Reported  by  the  press  the  large  sums  given 
for  philanthropies  in  1905  ran  above  sixty-six  mil- 
lion dollars  and  in  1906  above  one  hundred  six  mil- 
lion dollars.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  the 


472  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

world  has  such  giving  been  seen.     American  Chris- 
tians have  been  learning  to  be  doers  of  the  word. 

The  Evangelical  Alliance  was  formed  as  a  result 
of  the  deepening  currents  of  the  religious  life  among 
English-speaking  peoples.  Before  its  formation  in 
1846  a  sentiment  through  the  press  and  in  Chris- 
tian gatherings  had  found  expression  for  united  work 
among  the  denominations.  When  the  organization 
in  London  took  place,  more  than  eighty  pulpits  in 
that  city  had  preaching  in  them  by  the  delegates  in 
the  speech  of  England,  France,  Germany  and  of 
other  peoples.  The  organization  was  hailed  with 
enthusiasm  over  all  the  world,  people  everywhere 
seeing  the  reasonableness  of  such  a  movement.  At 
the  General  Council  held  in  1851  in  London,  repre- 
sentatives were  present  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
from  America,  Asia,  Africa,  West  Indies,  and  from 
other  countries.  The  world  was  getting  tired  of 
theological  combats  and  was  eager  to  be  doing  work 
for  the  truth.  At  the  Paris  Convention  of  1855 
urgent  call  was  made  for  freedom  of  worship  with 
use  of  private  conscience.  The  Prussian  King  was 
anxious  for  a  convention  in  his  country  so  that  of 
1857  was  held  in  Berlin.  Four  years  later  it  was 
held  at  Geneva,  then  at  Amsterdam. 

In  1873  the  Evangelical  Alliance  was  held  in  New 
York.  The  Americans  owing  vast  debts  to  all 
European  countries  for  civilization,  letters,  religion 
and  liberty,  were  glad  to  have  the  delegates  coming 
from  those  old  countries  see  the  growth  from  the 
seed  planted  by  them.  Freedom  in  personal  life  and 
liberty  in  religious  life  were  doing  their  noble  work. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  473 

The  great  successful  sweep  of  Christian  truth,  though 
put  into  various  statements,  stood  in  vivid  contrast 
to  the  fact  that  no  new  aggressive  form  of  infidelity 
was  of  late  origin. 

In  connection  with  the  Columbian  Exposition  at 
Chicago  in  1893  the  Alliance  held  a  monster  conven- 
tion. The  motto  written  in  Latin  as  a  kind  of  uni- 
versal tongue  was,  "We  are  one  body  in  Christ." 
Again  and  again  the  primary  object  was  stated  to 
promote  Christian  union  in  work,  in  fraternal  in- 
tercourse, and  to  manifest  the  unity  of  the  church. 
Many  great  gatherings,  as  the  missionary  confer- 
ences, had  been  inspired  by  the  Alliance.  During 
the  fifty  years  of  its  work  the  fraternal  feeling  among 
the  denominations  had  largely  increased.  Philan- 
thropic movements,  social  settlements,  kindergartens, 
fresh-air  funds,  were  all  aided  by  this  association. 
The  Inner  Mission  in  Great  Britain  similar  to  Home 
Missions  in  America  grew  out  of  the  Alliance. 
Many  other  organizations  of  various  kinds  had  been 
pushed  forward  by  it.  One  thing  being  tried  in 
America  was  the  Institutional  Church.  Such  was 
the  Berkeley  Temple  in  Boston.  That  held  regular 
Sabbath  services  with  a  Sunday  School  and  through 
the  week  was  always  open.  It  sustained  services 
for  the  Jews,  the  Greeks  and  for  other  races,  had 
a  Young  Men's  Institute  with  lectures,  concerts,  the 
invitation  being  by  tickets  with  free  seats.  For 
aiding  young  women  it  had  a  sewing  school,  taught 
kindergarten  methods  and  kitchen  skill,  had  classes 
in  arithmetic,  painting,  German  and  French.  Simi- 
lar undertakings,  it  was  reported  had  been  under- 


474  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

taken  in  Denver  and  elsewhere.  Money  to  sustain 
these  costly  projects  had  been  freely  given  by  rich 
laymen. 

Somewhat  like  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  scope 
and  purpose  is  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion. Like  the  other  it  was  a  product  of  London 
religious  life.  About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  it  was  adopted  in  America.  The  purpose 
is  to  work  for  the  good  of  young  men,  aiding  in 
social  life,  mental  culture,  spiritual  uplift  and  phys- 
ical improvement.  It  requires  its  active  members 
to  be  Christians  and  in  its  associate  members  asks 
for  a  good  moral  character.  During  the  Civil  War 
it  mostly  directed  the  ministries  of  the  Christian 
Commission.  Business  men,  seeing  the  worth  of  its 
work  for  young  men,  have  freely  poured  out  money 
to  erect  and  sustain  splendid  buildings  in  most  of 
the  great  cities.  In  Boston  recently  a  call  was  made 
for  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  erect  such  a 
house  and  in  a  few  days  it  wasf  all  subscribed.  Such 
buildings  offer  libraries,  reception  rooms,  gymna- 
siums, lecture  rooms,  baths,  with  many  other  val- 
uable and  attractive  features.  In  addition  to  the 
strictly  evangelical  purposes,  evening  schools  are 
sustained  for  those  busy  during  the  day  while  train- 
ing schools,  medical  clubs  and  plans  for  saving  funds 
are  kept  in  operation.  In  America,  the  Associations 
number  above  two  thousand  with  four  hundred 
splendid  buildings  and  nearly  two  thousand  paid 
officers.  Through  the  energy  of  American  and 
British  workers  Associations  have  been  formed  in 
all  parts  of  the  Christian  world.  Says  Rev.  Dr. 
Roswell  Hitchcock: 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  475 

"The  omnipresence,  I  had  almost  said  the  omnipo- 
tence, of  the  Intercollegiate  Young  Men's  College  As- 
sociations is  the  great  fact  in  the  religious  life  of  our 
colleges  to-day." 

The  worth  of  a  similar  organization  among  the 
young  women  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Young 
Woman's  Christian  Association  wThich  has  grown  to 
pleasant  proportions  and  success.  Its  start  was  in 
the  Ladies'  Christian  Union  of  New  York  in  1858. 
A  phase  of  its  activities  distinctly  for  service  in  col- 
leges and  universities  had  its  rise  in  the  Illinois  Nor- 
mal University  with  special  reference  to  the  needs 
of  young  women.  In  the  Association  four  depart- 
ments of  work  are  carried  on.  The  first  looks  to 
the  physical  well-being  of  the  members,  training  in 
gymnasium,  health  talks,  outing  clubs  and  the  like. 
The  second  department  considers  the  social  needs 
where  direction  is  given  to  receptions,  to  boarding 
clubs,  employment  bureaus,  and  to  similar  matters. 
The  third,  the  intellectual,  pays  attention  to  libra- 
ries, lecture  courses,  musical  and  art  clubs.  The 
fourth  department  is  that  of  the  spiritual  needs  of 
the  young  women,  having  evangelistic  meetings, 
Bible  study  mingled  with  personal  appeal  and  work. 
The  two  organizations,  the  one  among  young  men, 
the  other  among  the  young  women,  are  set  up  in  all 
the  prominent  educational  institutions  where  co- 
education is  conducted  and  are  fruitful  in  cultivat- 
ing the  higher  nobler  forces  of  the  young  life. 

A  most  remarkable  expression  of  the  religious  life, 
freighted  with  vast  benedictions  to  mankind,  has 
come  in  the  organized  activities  of  the  young  people 


476  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

of  the  different  denominations.  At  Portland,  Maine, 
in  1881,  Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  pastor  of  the  Williston 
Congregational  Church,  with  "Faith  in  God,  faith 
in  man,"  that  New  England  creed  which  Lowell  said 
was  ample  for  this  life  and  for  the  next,  began  the 
movement  that  has  since  covered  the  world.  Hav- 
ing a  group  of  young  converts  he  called  them  to  his 
home,  offered  a  constitution  designed  to  promote 
an  earnest  Christian  life  among  those  using  it,  to 
increase  their  mutual  acquaintance  and  in  many 
ways  to  make  them  more  useful  servants  of  God. 
This  constitution  pledged  all  active  members  of  the 
organization  to  be  present  at  every  prayer  meeting 
unless  detained  by  some  absolute  necessity  and  that 
each  one  would  take  some  part,  however  slight,  in 
every  meeting.  Departments  were  planned  to  seek 
new  members,  to  urge  forward  the  slow,  to  reach  those 
outside  the  church,  to  furnish  good  literature  and 
put  it  with  flowers  in  public  places,  to  work  in  Sun- 
day School,  and  to  aid  in  temperance  and  missionary 
interests.  They  were  to  stay  at  home  with  the 
children  for  the  mother  to  go  to  meeting,  to  aid  the 
pastor,  to  form  a  hand-shaking  brigade,  and  do  other 
social  and  religious  duties. 

Leaving  the  pastorate,  Mr.  Clark  devoted  himself 
entirely  to  building  up  this  new  energy  to  Chris- 
tianity, traveling  widely  in  its  interests  in  America 
and  in  other  lands,  setting  the  young  people  of  the 
churches  at  work  in  organized  form.  In  the  sixth 
year  of  the  twentieth  century  the  Christian  Endea- 
vor Society,  the  direct  product  of  Mr.  Clark's  plan, 
had  in  all  parts  of  the  world  sixty-five  thousand 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  477 

societies  with  four  million  members.  Various  sects 
under  their  own  rules  formed  similar  societies  with 
still  more  millions  of  workers.  It  is  claimed  by  ear- 
nest toilers  to  be  the  most  important  organization 
of  modern  times.  It  works  hand  in  hand  with  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement,  pushes  for  evangelism,, 
toils  with  all  interested  in  fields  of  mercy  and  help, 
heartily  encourages  education  in  schools  and  colleges 
and  outside  of  them.  Through  these  interblending 
societies,  whether  under  the  name  of  Christian  En- 
deavor or  of  those  selected,  a  rich,  high  spirit  of 
fraternity  among  the  various  churches  has  been  en- 
larged and  made  more  intense.  Out  of  it  have  come 
magnificently  equipped  workers  of  both  sexes  whose 
labors  are  of  priceless  worth  to  their  fellow  men. 
It  is  not  only  an  organization  but  an  influence  and 
an  inspiration. 

Another  result  of  the  rising  religious  spirit  is  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement.  Originating  in  1886, 
it  rapidly  spread  among  the  student  body  of  United 
States  and  Canada,  thence  to  Great  Britain,  and 
soon  all  over  the  world.  At  the  initial  gathering 
at  Mount  Hermon,  two  hundred  fifty  delegates  came, 
twenty-one  of  whom  had  already  pledged  to  go  as 
missionaries.  Foremost  as  moving  spirits  were  Wil- 
der of  Princeton,  Tewksbury  of  Harvard  and  Clark 
of  Oberlin.  Before  the  convention  closed  one  hun- 
dred declared  themselves  willing  and  desirous,  God 
permitting,  to  become  foreign  missionaries.  Wilder 
and  Forman  were  sent  out  to  the  colleges  and  in  two 
years  when  another  convention  was  called  they  had 
visited  one  hundred  seventy-six  institutions  in  United 


478  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

States  and  Canada.  At  the  convention  of  1888  in 
Northfield  an  executive  committee  consisting  of 
John  R.  Mott,  Robert  P.  Wilder  and  Nettie  Dean 
was  appointed  who  vigorously  pushed  the  work,  visit- 
ing colleges,  holding  meetings,  and  pledging  students 
to  volunteer  for  missionaries. 

The  movement  did  not  purpose  to  become  another 
missionary  society  to  send  missionaries  out  itself, 
but  to  act  as  a  recruiting  agency  for  missionary 
boards  already  organized.  It  aimed  to  find  students 
willing  to  go  to  foreign  fields  who  would  prepare 
themselves  while  in  school  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  Boards,  who  would  thus  be  able  to  fill  up  the 
ranks  and  increase  the  corps  of  missionaries  as  well. 
The  watchword  chosen  was,  "The  Evangelization  of 
the  World  in  this  Generation."  Colleges  in  United 
States  and  Canada  numbered  a  thousand  with  two 
hundred  thousand  students.  In  time  the  tireless 
workers  reached  nearly  all  these  institutions,  find- 
ing in  a  few  years  more  than  two  thousand  young 
people  willing,  if  the  way  was  opened,  to  go  to  the 
foreign  work.  The  college  professors  at  first  seemed 
shy  of  the  movement  but  by  the  time  of  the  Detroit 
Convention,  1894,  they  were  present  in  considerable 
numbers,  giving  their  hearty  sympathy  and  after  that 
their  active  support.  The  churches  in  all  their 
activities  have  felt  the  impulse. 

Mr.  Wilder,  going  out  as  a  missionary  to  India, 
stopped  a  year  in  Great  Britain,  impelling  a  similar 
movement  there  known  as  the  Student  Volunteer  Mis- 
sionary Union  which  has  had  a  most  pleasing  growth. 
Mr.  Wilder  speaking  at  the  Keswick  Convention 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  479 

of  1891,  for  but  twelve  minutes,  led  a  few  choice 
souls  to  dedicate  themselves  to  the  missionary  serv- 
ice. By  these  others  were  aroused,  resulting  in  the 
full  formation  of  the  movement.  At  the  time  of 
Mr.  Wilder's  visit  only  two  hundred  of  all  the  col- 
leges in  Great  Britain  were  expecting  to  go  as  mis- 
sionaries, but  within  six  years  twelve  hundred  in 
those  institutions  were  at  the  command  of  missionary 
societies.  All  the  great  universities,  Cambridge, 
Oxford,  Dublin,  London,  were  in  the  current. 
Shortly  two  hundred  volunteers  were  at  work  in  In- 
dia, and  a  large  number  in  America  were  with  them. 

In  1896-7  John  R.  Mott  made  a  tour  of  the  world 
to  present  the  Student  Movement  to  other  peoples. 
Everywhere  his  reception  was  most  cordial  and  en- 
couraging. In  Great  Britain,  on  the  continent,  in 
India,  China,  Japan,  he  met  the  colleges  individually 
or  at  delegated  conventions.  To  a  convention  at 
Shanghai  no  less  than  seventeen  college  presidents 
came,  some  of  them  having  spent  three  weeks  to  get 
there,  so  important  did  they  deem  the  movement 
for  their  schools.  The  movement  became  not  only 
interdenominational  but  international.  Mission  col- 
leges themselves  pledged  volunteers  among  their  own 
people  or  to  adjacent  ones.  So  vast  is  the  territory 
of  India  and  multitudinous  its  people,  as  also  of 
China,  that  in  those  countries  volunteers  from  na- 
tive colleges  could  be  thought  of  as  going  to  foreign 
lands. 

A  monster  convention  in  1902  met  in  Toronto, 
Canada.  Delegates  to  it  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Reports  as  at  the  great  missionary  confer- 


480  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ences,  were  brought  of  the  work  in  the  various  parts 
of  the  world,  giving  cause  for  great  enthusiasm. 
Already  of  the  Volunteers  it  was  known  that  1953 
had  taken  their  departure  for  foreign  fields.  A 
project  started  by  the  Methodists  of  Canada  called 
the  Students'  Campaign  and  taken  up  by  other 
churches  was  in  full  sweep.  This  campaign  was  in- 
creasing missionary  information  not  only  among  the 
Volunteers  but  especially  among  those  not  pledged, 
and  arousing  enthusiasm  in  the  young  peoples' 
societies.  Increase  of  power  was  noticeable  in 
churches  that  were  individually  sending  out  mission- 
aries. 

Again  in  1906,  twenty  years  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Volunteer  Movement,  the  Convention  met  at 
Nashville,  Tennessee.  Four  thousand  delegates  were 
there  besides  other  thousands  of  interested  spectators 
of  the  inspiring  scene.  Thousands  had  to  be  refused 
attendance  owing  to  want  of  accommodation,  al- 
though the  great  Ryman  Auditorium  could  seat  six 
thousand  people.  Seven  hundred  colleges  were  rep- 
resented. Working  in  perfect  harmony  were  rep- 
resentatives of  more  than  fifty  denominations.  Fed- 
eration was  not  in  theory  but  in  fact.  An  appeal 
had  come  up  from  the  Conference  of  the  Foreign 
Missionary  Boards  of  United  States  and  Canada 
held  in  Nashville  shortly  before  for  a  thousand  young 
people  each  year  to  go  to  foreign  fields.  More  than 
a  hundred  of  those  in  convention  were  already  under 
orders  from  the  missionary  boards  to  go  out  during 
the  year.  John  R.  Mott,  chairman  of  the  executive 
committee,  asked  for  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  a 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  481 

year  for  four  years  to  carry  on  the  work  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  sum  of  ninety  thousand  dollars  was 
raised.  The  students  alone  had  given  the  preceding 
year  to  missions  no  less  than  eighty  thousand  dol- 
lars. Of  the  two  thousand  two  hundred  eighty- 
seven  sent  to  mission  fields  from  America  during  the 
four  years  preceding,  forty-one  percent,  were  Vol- 
unteers. 

The  compact  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  was 
the  first  constitution  ever  written  based  upon  equal 
rights  of  all  men  as  members  of  the  state.  They 
deemed,  however,  that  the  state  should  maintain  re- 
ligion, punish  blasphemy,  heresy,  and  other  acts  con- 
trary to  church  teaching.  If  in  that  compact  there 
was  the  germ  of  a  free  state,  there  was  also  the  seed 
of  free  Christianity.  Each  indeed  was  but  a  germ 
but  was  destined  to  grow  in  the  free  air  and  wide 
expanse  of  the  new  continent. 

But  even  in  the  colonies  that  decreed  religious 
liberty  was  full  religious  freedom  not  allowed.  It 
required  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  progress 
of  years  afterward  to  drive  out  all  the  virus  of  cus- 
tom and  bigotry.  But  gradually  public  opinion, 
that  tidal  force  mightier  in  United  States  than  con- 
stitutions, swept  away  every  legal  vestige  of  the 
hateful  colonial  laws  in  the  current  of  absolutely 
equal  religious  rights.  Not  only  public  opinion  but 
the  courts  declared  for  those  rights.  But  public 
opinion  after  all  was  the  successful  regulator.  As 
late  as  in  1873,  when  in  some  states  it  was  held  in 
law  that  belief  in  God  and  in  future  rewards  and 
punishments  were  required  for  holding  civic  office, 


482  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

public  opinion  steadily  made  them  a  nullity.  Other 
religious  tests  shared  the  same  fate.  Judge  Cooley 
on  Constitutional  Limitations  says  that  the  Con- 
stitution forbids  any  law  respecting  an  establish- 
ment of  religion  or  the  compulsory  support  by  taxa- 
tion or  otherwise  of  religious  instruction.  Further, 
that  it  forbids  compulsory  attendance  upon  religious 
worship,  or  restraint  upon  the  free  exercise  of  relig- 
ion according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience  or  any 
restraint  upon  the  expression  of  religious  beliefs. 

Churches  are  recognized  by  law  only  as  corpora- 
tions to  hold  property,  not  as  religious  bodies. 
Property  held  for  the  churches  by  colonial  laws  be- 
fore the  Revolution  was  after  that  confirmed  by  the 
courts.  Thus  in  1801  in  Virginia  the  Legislature 
passed  an  act  that  the  vacant  glebe  land  should  be 
sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  but  on  appeal  the 
Supreme  Court  of  United  States  annulled  it,  holding 
that  the  original  grant  could  not  be  revoked.  As 
the  division  occurred  in  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
making  the  Old  School  and  the  New  School,  each 
claimed  a  part  of  the  property,  but  the  Supreme 
Courts  decided  that  property  rights  remained  alone 
with  the  old  school  section  since  by  that  as  a  cor- 
poration the  property  was  attained.  As  yet  the 
courts  of  the  different  states  have  no  uniform  de- 
cisions. In  the  famous  Girard  case  the  Pennsyl- 
vania court  said: 

"Though  certain  features  of  the  common  law  may  be 
derived  from  the  Christian  religion  the  law  does  not 
attempt  to  enforce  the  precepts  of  Christianity  on  the 
ground  of  its  sacred  character  or  divine  origin." 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  483 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio  ruled  that  acts  evil  in 
their  nature  or  dangerous  to  the  public  welfare  may 
be  forbidden  and  punished  though  sanctioned  by 
one  religion  and  prohibited  by  another. 

The  wise  men  framing  the  Constitution  put  into 
one  of  its  paragraphs,  "No  religious  test  shall  ever 
be  required  as  a  qualification  for  any  office  or  public 
trust  under  the  United  States."  As  the  document 
was  placed  before  the  several  states  for  approval 
Rhode  Island  demanded  as  a  condition  of  acceptance 
that  an  amendment  be  made  so  that  the  first  amend- 
ment guarding  the  rights  of  the  new  citizen  was 
adopted  by  the  states,  "Congress  shall  make  no  law 
respecting  an  establishment  of  religion  or  prohibit- 
ing the  free  exercise  thereof."  These  two  short 
sentences  have  stood  in  the  religious  history  of  the 
new  nation  like  a  granite  promontory  jutting  into 
the  ocean's  surges.  The  hope  and  aim  and  dream 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  then  brought  to  a  full 
legal  fruition.  It  made  the  religious  consciousness 
free  on  the  new  continent.  The  fourteenth  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  forbidding  any  state  to 
make  or  enforce  any  law  abridging  the  privileges  or 
amenities  of  citizens  of  United  States,  could  well  be 
construed  as  forbidding  any  religious  test  or  estab- 
lishment. 

The  unrest  apparent  in  society,  a  sign  no  doubt 
of  progress,  is  in  later  years  taking  form  in  America 
in  socialist  agitation  and  organized  working  men. 
The  distinct  socialist  movement  in  German  politics 
and  among  the  working  men  of  Great  Britain,  by 
which  a  working  man  was  placed  in  the  ministry, 


484.  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

shows  how  the  Teutonic  race  regards  the  issues  taken 
up  by  the  classes  hitherto  under  too  many  limitations. 
In  a  free  country  like  America,  with  press,  speech, 
church  free,  such  a  great  question  as  the  relation 
of  labor  and  capital  can  be  treated  without  the  pres- 
ence of  anarchy  and  atheism.  A  union  with  the 
Christian  spirit  is  heartily  sought  by  the  most  recent 
leaders  of  the  socialist  movement.  Indeed,  the  feel- 
ing of  liberty  given  by  religion  leads  to  the  asser- 
tion of  rights  urged  by  the  socialists.  Many  leaders 
of  the  movement  are  preachers  of  the  various  sects, 
either  in  the  active  pastorate  or  formerly  in  that 
work.  Where  the  religious  consciousness  is  so  gen- 
eral inside  the  churches  and  out  of  them,  there  is  a 
growing  opinion  that  Christianity  can  give  the  right 
solution  to  the  questions  arising  between  capital  and 
labor,  between  rights  and  restrictions.  Hence  one 
wing  of  the  socialists  call  their  movement  most  nat- 
urally Christian  Socialism.  Working  men  every- 
where could  find  sympathetic  churches  if  they  had 
not  fallen  into  the  habit  of  condemning  all  alike. 
Sometimes  those  who  scold  most  about  the  churches 
accept  the  social  teachings  of  Jesus  both  in  word 
and  example.  Crowds  listening  to  bitter  socialistic 
speeches  have  sometimes  hooted  references  to  the 
churches  but  cheered  the  name  of  Jesus. 

The  Christian  Socialists  claim  that  the  churches 
should  follow  the  teachings  of  the  Master  and  should 
return  to  the  primitive  conditions  of  the  real  gospel. 
These  claims  would  keep  the  spiritual  element  largely 
at  the  front.  The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  says, 
"The  ethics  of  Socialism  are  identical  with  the  ethics 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  485 

of  Christianity."  The  socialists  plead  for  justice  in 
the  distribution  of  wealth  produced  by  labor.  The 
vast  corporations,  in  so  many  instances  using  the 
wealth  already  accumulated  to  make  more,  are  con- 
sidered by  the  socialists  as  wrong,  dangerous,  oppres- 
sive. Common  brotherhood  and  universal  rights  are 
demanded  as  the  gift  of  heaven  to  all  men.  Socialism 
stands  for  peace  as  opposed  to  war.  Socialism,  see- 
ing that  Christian  teachings  would  save  from  war, 
stands  for  international  friendship.  If  the  broadest 
rights  are  sought  it  is  claimed  that  they  cannot  be 
reached  with  society  as  it  is  now  fashioned.  It  is 
the  old  cry  for  rights,  as  old  as  evolving  civilization. 
In  Anglo-Saxon  progress  the  claims  of  toilers  have 
with  increasing  knowledge  and  larger  aspirations 
grown  higher  and  higher. 


CHAPTER  L 

When  after  the  capture  of  Quebec,  Canada  passed 
to  British  control,  the  good  offices  of  English  freedom 
were  at  once  apparent.  The  French  population, 
then  about  all  the  people  in  the  colony,  were  granted 
greater  freedom  than  was  given  them  by  the  govern- 
ment of  France.  Little  interference  was  made  in 
their  plans  of  church  government  or  service.  The 
parishes  and  priests  were  not  disturbed  and  soon  the 
Quebec  Act  recognized  by  Parliament  the  legal  rela- 
tions, new  indeed  in  British  law,  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
bishop  and  proper  diocesan  authority.  Tithes  to 
support  their  clergy  and  system  were  continued  and 
the  French  language  was  not  forbidden.  Some  of 
the  monastic  orders  were  banished  but  after  a  while 
were  permitted  to  return,  and  soon  built  establish- 
ments in  the  prominent  towns.  This  gift  of  rights, 
a  diplomatic  stroke  of  British  statesmanship,  made 
the  French  Canadians  loyal  to  Great  Britain  in  the 
period  of  the  impending  Revolutionary  War.  They 
were  importuned  by  the  Americans  to  join  in  the 
claim  for  independence  but  in  vain.  Some  commis- 
sioners were  sent  to  them  for  this  purpose.  Even 
Bishop  John  Carroll  of  Maryland  urged  them  to  join 
with  the  States  but  they  flatly  refused. 

As  population  increased  and  riches  accumulated, 
pushing  beyond  their  original  province,  they  erected 
large  parish  churches,  more  stately  monasteries,  ele- 
gant nunneries,  and  ornate  cathedrals,  in  all  parts 

486 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  487 

of  the  country.  They  have  persistently  used  the 
rights  of  English  subjects.  In  the  westward  move- 
ment they  have  been  able  to  send  their  priests  along 
with  the  couriers  du  bois,  along,  too,  with  the  settlers 
in  Winnipeg  and  to  the  Pacific  coast,  not  neglecting 
the  Hudson  Bay  fur-gatherers  or  the  scattered  In- 
dian tribes.  Their  numbers  and  superior  organiza- 
tion, their  systematic  care  of  their  people,  the  prog- 
ress in  education  and  in  liberal  politics  have  been 
similar  to  that  of  other  races  in  Canada.  They 
mostly  sustain  their  own  schools  and  fret  under  the 
laws  that  tax  them  for  public  secular  schools.  In 
Lower  Canada  it  is  said  that  a  third  of  the  landed 
property  is  in  the  hands  of  the  hierarchy.  Their 
organization  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
consisted  of  a  Cardinal,  six  archbishops,  more  than  a 
score  of  bishops,  fifteen  hundred  priests  and  two  mil- 
lion people.  The  brilliant  premier,  Laurier,  is  a 
gift  of  the  French  race  and  of  the  Catholic 
faith. 

After  Wolfe  and  Montcalm,  Anglican  chaplains 
came  with  the  British  troops  of  occupation.  As 
they  had  opportunity,  these  chaplains  set  up  religious 
services,  organized  a  few  regular  parishes,  and 
opened  schools  for  the  children  of  the  soldiers.  Later 
attempts  were  made  to  convert  the  French  to 
Protestant  ways.  Some  Anglican  clergy  of  French 
speech,  natives  of  Switzerland,  engaged  in  this  pur- 
pose but  their  efforts  were  futile.  The  American 
War  of  Independence  caused  an  exodus  of  the  loyal- 
ists to  British  Provinces.  Their  number  has  been 
estimated  at  twenty  thousand  to  forty  thousand. 


488  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Most  of  them,  being  of  the  Anglican  faith,  found  min- 
istrations to  suit  them  and  sympathy  for  their  loy- 
alty. At  the  same  time  they  added  valuable  ele- 
ments, sturdy  and  liberty-loving,  to  the  provinces  and 
to  the  Anglican  Church. 

In  1791,  the  home  government  in  arranging  the 
religious  matters  of  Canada  set  apart  one-seventh 
of  the  public  lands,  called  the  Clergy  Reserve,  to  be 
used  in  support  of  the  Protestant  religion.  At  once 
it  was  claimed  by  the  Anglicans,  since  that  denom- 
ination was  the  only  one  recognized  by  law  as  estab- 
lished in  England,  that  all  this  land  belonged  to 
them.  To  this  the  Scot  Presbyterians  objected, 
since  in  Scotland  their  sect  was  the  Establishment. 
Finally  a  pittance  of  such  lands  was  granted  to  the 
Presbyterians  but  to  no  others.  The  Establishment 
held  strong  opposition  to  Dissenters,  the  laws  being 
so  construed  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  perform 
the  marriage  rites,  while  social  distinctions  were  as 
much  insisted  upon  if  not  more  than  in  the  home 
country.  Such  things  led  to  much  bitterness  and 
controversy  between  the  sects  and  hindered  the  prog- 
ress of  the  religious  life.  Just  across  the  line  the 
Americans  had  religious  liberty  absolutely;  why,  the 
Canadians  urged,  could  not  similar  rights  be  enjoyed 
by  this  other  people  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

As  could  be  expected,  the  pious,  pushing  Scots 
were  on  hand  in  Canada.  People  of  that  denomination 
were  found  among  the  refugees  from  United  States 
and  these  were  as  eager  for  preaching  and  church 
privileges  as  those  direct  from  Europe.  To  meet 
the  calls  of  those  scattered  pioneers,  ministers  every- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  489 

where  and  of  every  denomination  had  to  turn  itin- 
erants. These  itinerants  had  to  thread  dim  forests 
among  dangerous  beasts,  must  often  ford  swift-flow- 
ing streams,  sometimes  swim  across  deep  ones,  go 
wet,  hungry,  pinched  with  poverty,  and  put  up  with 
miserable  accommodations  and  poor  fare.  But  they 
went,  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Anglicans, 
Catholics.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  what  the  Christian 
Anglo-Saxon  will  not  do  for  the  spiritual  good  of  his 
fellow  man.  Yet  not  all  the  people  of  Canada  were 
pious  and  eager  for  the  gospel.  From  Montreal  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  John  Mitchell 
wrote,  "If  ever  the  world  was  idolized  and  heaven  and 
Christ  neglected  it  is  surely  in  this  place." 

Of  the  Presbyterians,  several  home  divisions  were 
represented  who  early  began  to  seek  union  of  their 
divided  forces.  The  home  churches  helped  them  with 
ministers,  money  to  purchase  Bibles,  catechisms, 
tracts,  and  other  helps.  As  the  project  of  Lord  Sel- 
kirk took  form  in  establishing  a  colony  in  the  Red 
River  Valley  of  the  west,  one  of  his  promises  to  the 
Scot  Highlanders  and  others  was  that  they  should 
have  a  pastor  of  their  own.  Delay  marked  this  plan 
but  it  was  finally  reached  to  the  joy  of  all.  So  fine 
was  the  system  of  the  Catholics  that  priests  were  sent 
there  when  only  two  or  three  families  of  their  people 
were  in  Winnipeg.  Sometimes  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  lack  of  the  sweet  spirit  of  Christianity  among 
the  sects.  The  freedom-loving  colonists  objected  to 
the  superiority  in  the  new  country  of  any  one  denom- 
ination. The  Catholics  of  Lower  Canada  objected 
to  the  incoming  of  other  sects  nor  were  the  Presby- 


490  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

terians  always  tolerant  of  the  invading  Methodists 
and  Baptists  from  United  States. 

One  burning  cause  of  animosity  among  the  denom- 
inations was  the  matter  of  clergy  reserve  of  lands. 
Appeals  were  made  to  the  local  courts  and  from  these 
it  was  carried  to  Great  Britain  where  eminent  legal 
opinion  was  that  those  rich  reserves  belonged  in 
larger  share  to  the  Anglicans,  and  in  smaller  share  to 
the  Presbyterians,  since  these  two  sects  were  the 
established  ones  in  England  and  in  Scotland.  This 
opinion  settled  nothing.  The  outside  people  of  Can- 
ada would  not  let  the  matter  rest.  When  the  col- 
onies had  a  Legislature  of  their  own  and  the  Lower 
House  voted  that  an  equitable  division  of  it  should 
be  made  among  the  sects,  the  Upper  House,  the 
Council,  refused  concurrence.  Finally  in  1854  a  set- 
tlement of  the  vexed  question  was  reached,  a  vast 
proportion  going  to  the  Anglicans,  a  lesser  part  to 
the  Presbyterians,  while  other  denominations  were 
given  a  moiety.  Later  the  income  of  the  remainder 
of  these  lands  was  directed  to  educational  and  secu- 
lar purposes,  and  the  clergy  of  all  the  churches  were 
supported  alone  by  voluntary  funds. 

Even  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Canada  was  subjected  to  an  invasion  from  United 
States  though  of  a  peaceful  kind.  The  intense  Bap- 
tist preachers  and  tireless  Methodist  itinerants 
crossed  the  dividing  line  of  the  two  countries,  whether 
that  line  was  river,  lake,  or  an  invisible  one  along 
some  specified  parallel  of  latitude.  Other  denomina- 
tions came  also  as  settlers  or  for  the  sake  of  making 
converts,  but  those  two  seemed  to  have  been  most  la- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


491 


borious  with  most  remarkable  toil  and  success.  The 
Baptists,  with  a  dogma  they  deemed  necessary  for 
salvation,  could  well  be  intense  and  immerse  in  the 
limpid  streams  of  the  new  country,  whether  in  the 
summer  heat  or  in  the  blast  of  winter,  at  a  hole  cut 
through  the  ice,  such  people  as  were  converted  under 
their  preaching.  Their  organization  of  independency 
eminently  suited  many  of  the  freedom-loving  settlers, 
for  the  spirit  of  rights  from  the  first  was  strong 
among  them.  This  spirit  was  to  bring  to  Canada 
eminent  blessings  of  religious  liberty  that  were  to  aid 
other  British  colonies  the  world  over  to  similar 
liberty. 

The  Methodist  itinerant  system  enabled  that  de- 
nomination to  send  its  preachers  not  only  where  there 
was  a  call  from  the  people  but  also  to  regions  where 
no  Methodists  were  known  to  have  settled,  but  where 
it  was  deemed  that  the  people  needed  the  gospel.  The 
first  of  those  restless  itinerants  to  be  sent  from  the 
states  was  one  Losee,  going  from  Conference  with  the 
significant  direction  "to  range  at  large."  His  was 
the  beginning  of  the  peaceful  invasion.  He  opened 
work  that  was  steadily  enlarged  as  was  that  of  the 
Baptists  and  others  among  the  scattered  settlers. 
Circuits  among  the  Methodists,  as  in  the  States,  were 
formed  over  which  the  itinerants  went  in  regular 
order,  organizing  classes,  societies,  and  putting  up 
churches.  Some  of  those  Circuits  were  across  vast 
stretches  of  country,  one  in  Upper  Canada  being  two 
hundred  forty  miles  in  extent.  All  those  early  min- 
isters preached  to  the  people  anywhere  they  could  get 
them  to  assemble,  in  log  cabins,  barns,  stores,  under 


492  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  trees.  Such  adaptations  to  conditions  suited  the 
brave  pioneers.  While  the  War  of  1812  had  been 
most  disastrous  to  the  religious  life  its  effects  grad- 
ually wore  away.  At  a  Methodist  Conference  held 
in  the  locality  of  Lundy's  Lane  where  but  seven  years 
before  the  American  and  British  armies  met  in  one 
of  the  bloodiest  battles  of  the  war,  now  some  Amer- 
ican and  Canadian  young  men  who  fought  against 
each  other  in  that  battle  knelt  together  at  the  altar 
of  the  Elizabethtown  meeting-house  for  ordination. 
As  the  ceremony  ended  they  clasped  each  other  in 
their  arms  and  through  streaming  eyes  gave  the  kiss 
of  peace. 

By  1817  the  Wesleyans  from  England  had  entered 
upon  systematic  work,  having  formed  circuits  at 
Quebec,  Montreal,  Kingston,  and  at  several  places 
in  the  eastern  provinces.  Their  success  and  influence 
were  fine  from  the  start  and  of  importance  to  Can- 
ada. Many  of  the  people  from  the  old  country  liked 
their  ways  better  than  the  work  of  preachers  from 
United  States.  In  1821  it  was  agreed  between  the 
Wesleyans  and  the  Methodists  from  the  States  that 
one  should  confine  themselves  to  Lower  Canada,  the 
other  to  Upper  Canada. 

From  such  beginnings  of  the  various  denomina- 
tions the  phases  of  the  religious  life,  as  seen  in  the 
Canadian  churches,  grandly  developed,  mostly  in  a 
pleasing  spirit  of  amity.  One  cause  of  friction  after 
another  was  removed.  The  legislative  assembly  was 
granted,  in  1850,  by  the  home  government,  the  power 
to  settle  the  church  relations,  and  it  promptly  de- 
clared complete  religious  equality  among  the  de- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  493 

nominations.  Sectarian  schools  were  fostered  for  a 
while  but  on  the  formation  of  the  Dominion  of  Can- 
ada a  system  of  non-sectarian  schools  was  set  up,  and 
later  still,  a  secular  system  was  projected,  sustained 
by  the  home  government  by  which  taxes  were  laid  to 
support  them. 

In  all  parts  of  the  provinces  the  spirit  of  constitu- 
tional freedom  was  insisted  upon  and  gradually  at- 
tained. Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
this  gift  of  a  high  Christian  civilization  was  begin- 
ning to  show  itself,  and  as  the  decades  of  the  next 
century  passed,  step  by  step  progress  was  made.  At 
the  first  session  of  the  Colonial  Legislature  of  Upper 
Canada  in  1793,  an  act  was  passed  abolishing 
slavery.  Among  the  French  in  the  lower  province  a 
few  slaves  were  held  after  this  time,  but  gradually 
they  were  set  at  liberty  until  the  whole  country  was 
washed  clean  of  that  stain.  Besides  this,  Canada  be- 
came a  place  of  refuge  for  many  of  the  slaves  of 
United  States  who,  escaping  from  their  bondage,  suc- 
ceeded by  the  help  of  abolitionists  forming  the  "Un- 
derground Railroad,"  in  reaching  the  free  soil  of  that 
country. 

The  formation  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  uniting 
the  provinces  into  a  real  nation  with  its  Parliament 
at  Ottawa,  yet  each  province  having  its  own  local 
assembly  similar  to  the  federal  system  in  United 
States,  gave  a  great  uplift  for  better  things  to  British 
America.  Unity  of  power  has  enabled  commercial 
expansion  to  offer  multitudes  of  gifts  to  the  restless 
inhabitants,  easy  access  to  the  Pacific  coast  has  been 
reached,  the  new  nation  can  treat  with  other  nations 


494  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

on  the  ground  of  equality.  England  naturally  holds 
lax  leading  strings. 

The  religious  sects  of  similar  name  and  theology 
were  moved  by  a  spirit  of  union  like  that  of  the  po- 
litical sections.  Previous  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  no  less  than  eight  Presbyterian  bod- 
ies were  sustaining  their  own  religious  opinions  and 
practices.  Wiser  counsels  prevailing,  these  churches 
were  finally  amalgamated.  Several  Methodist  sec- 
tions, also  working  separately  for  some  decades, 
coalesced  into  one  Methodist  church  of  Canada.  By 
these  unions  efficiency  in  work  and  labors  was  greatly 
increased.  As  the  Dominion  expanded  vaster  fields 
for  the  uplift  of  the  people  also  were  presented,  the 
union  of  these  minute  sections  greatly  helping  for- 
ward church  work. 

Indeed,  so  valuable  were  the  results  of  these  com- 
binations that  the  twentieth  century  saw  at  its 
opening  a  still  broader  step  toward  the  fostering  of 
its  religious  life.  This  was  no  less  than  an  attempt 
to  unite  three  prominent  denominations  supposed  to 
vary  much  in  polity  and  doctrines,  the  Methodists, 
Presbyterians,  and  Congregationalists.  This  ad- 
vance movement  was  started  in  1902,  by  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodists,  held  at  Winnipeg, 
suggesting  an  organized  union  of  all  the  evangelical 
denominations  of  Canada.  This  proffer  being  taken 
up  by  the  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists, 
committees  have  been  formed,  meetings  and  confer- 
ences held  and  a  union  may  result.  Should  this  be 
done  it  would  be  the  first  in  all  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity of  a  union  among  denominations  so  divergent 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


495 


as  these.  Suggesting  this  fraternal  spirit  and  lead- 
ing to  it  have  been  the  International  Sunday  School 
Conventions,  Missionary  Conferences,  and  gatherings 
of  the  Young  People's  Movement.  Canada  in  this 
way  is  setting  a  noble  example  to  other  peoples,  to 
the  one  hundred  fifty  sects  in  United  States,  to  the 
two  hundred  thirty-six  said  to  exist  in  Great  Britain. 
Not  only  in  this  magnificent  movement  to  a  higher 
Christian  life  are  the  Canadians  nobly  leading  the 
way  to  higher  things,  but  they  are  doing  this  in  other 
directions.  In  forming  a  colonial  legislature  of  their 
own,  in  granting  wide  elective  franchise,  in  reaching 
legal  equality  among  the  denominations  and  in  other 
ways,  these  people,  touched  with  the  high  spirit  of  all 
America,  have  been  giving  to  other  British  colonies 
and  beyond  them  to  all  the  world,  exalted  examples  of 
God's  good  plans  for  his  children. 

As  the  twentieth  century  is  passing  there  opens 
for  Canada  a  new  field  of  expansion.  The  Canadian 
Pacific  Railroad  before  this  date  had  pushed  an  ave- 
nue of  improvement  among  the  mines  of  British  Co- 
lumbia, to  the  rich  fisheries  of  the  coast  and  to  an 
outlook  of  the  growing  importance  of  the  world's 
movement  in  commerce  on  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Then 
it  was  found  that  a  vast  region  of  northwest  Canada, 
reaching  near  the  Arctic  Circle,  rich  in  soil,  of  wide 
prairie  land,  of  easy  access,  and  touched  by  the  warm 
currents  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  would  produce  wheat 
and  other  cereals  in  most  amazing  abundance.  New 
railroads  have  penetrated  these  regions,  settlers  have 
flocked  to  this  land  of  promise  from  other  parts  of 
Canada,  from  United  States  and  from  all  parts  of  the 


496  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

world.  Along  with  the  settlers  have  gone  the  alert 
church  authorities  as  a  hundred  years  before  they 
did  in  eastern  Canada.  With  the  expansion  of  view 
in  the  boundless  west,  with  its  freedom  and  oppor- 
tunity, with  its  new  life  and  promise  of  better  things 
to  the  people  has  gone  a  deeper,  richer  religious  life. 
Intensity  of  action  has  marked  it.  Churches  have 
been  organized,  houses  for  worship  built,  an  open  free 
spirit  has  been  persistent,  the  feeling  among  the  de- 
nominations more  amicable.  Among  the  floods  of 
immigrants  have  come  various  sects,  the  Mennonites, 
Jews,  the  absurd  Doukhobors.  The  Indians  of  those 
sections  have  been  protected  and  carefully  taught  the 
Christian  evangel. 

Not  least  among  the  benefactions  of  this  interest- 
ing expansion  is  the  peculiar  tide  of  immigration  from 
England.  To  philanthropists  it  has  offered  new 
fields  for  giving  fresh  chances  to  needy  people.  Dr. 
Barnado  was  not  blind  to  this  opening,  being  able  to 
send  thousands  of  children  picked  up  on  the  streets 
of  London  to  the  good  homes  and  open  opportunities 
of  Canada.  Work  girls  by  the  hundreds,  restricted 
by  poverty,  by  imperfect  social  conditions,  and  by 
the  sharp  competition  of  labor  in  England,  have  been 
sent  to  the  Dominion  to  find  remunerative  employ- 
ment and  better  chances  every  way  for  a  higher  life. 
The  splendid  work  of  the  Salvation  Army  is  foremost 
in  these  labors.  In  one  year  no  less  than  twenty-five 
thousand  emigrants  were  aided  by  them  to  go  to  Can- 
ada. To  those  people  of  Great  Britain,  ignorant  of 
a  home,  there  awaited  with  a  song  and  a  little  dil- 
igence and  work,  one  in  the  Canadian  northwest.  So 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  497 

valuable  has  been  the  success  of  the  Army  among  the 
suffering  people  in  overcrowded  England  that  the 
government  of  that  realm,  with  a  view  of  offering 
similar  help  to  its  people,  is  officially  investigating 
the  methods  and  results  of  this  movement  of  General 
Booth. 

Above  all  other  results  of  Canadian  life  is  the 
splendid  class  of  people  produced  in  that  country. 
All  the  growth  in  the  many  fields  has  come  of  its 
people.  They  have  been  strong,  persistent,  hopeful, 
pious.  Almost  everybody  in  the  Dominion  belongs 
to  some  one  of  the  churches.  They  have  been  wise 
in  adjusting  difficulties  among  themselves  and  attain- 
ing new  positions  of  strength  and  success.  Fairness 
has  marked  their  relation  with  neighboring  nations 
and  with  the  imperial  government.  Statesmen  of 
high  diplomacy  and  of  wide  vision  have  been  pro- 
duced. Legislators  of  acute  insight  have  made  wise 
laws.  Orators  of  great  power  have  spoken  from  Can- 
ada's forum,  from  its  platforms  and  from  its  pulpits. 
Theologians  of  great  breadth  and  deep  research  have 
enriched  their  own  special  fields.  Men  have  been 
raised  to  fill  most  ably  the  highest,  most  burdensome 
offices  of  the  various  churches.  Writers  on  many 
subjects  have  added  to  the  literature  of  the  English 
tongue,  already  so  rich  and  varied.  Science  has  been 
enlarged  by  able  and  original  research.  Who  can 
foretell  the  future  of  the  Canadians? 


CHAPTER  LI 

In  South  Africa,  the  English  found  conditions  on 
its  conquest  from  the  Dutch  different  from  those 
found  on  the  conquest  of  Canada.  For  two  centuries 
it  had  been  settled  by  the  Dutch,  a  most  stubborn 
race,  not  far  removed  in  blood  from  the  English 
themselves.  The  Dutch  Reformed  Church  had  among 
their  own  colonists  been  set  up  from  the  early  occupa- 
tion. Consistories  were  organized,  the  people 
whether  in  towns  or  on  the  grazing  veldts  were  most 
pious  in  their  observances.  An  Old  Testament  spirit 
similar  to  that  of  the  Puritans  guided  them.  Their 
attitude  toward  the  natives,  however,  was  most  un- 
fortunate. Though  so  long  here  before  the  British 
conquest,  they  had  done  little  but  enslave  them.  The 
Reformed  Church  founded  no  missions  among  them. 
After  the  famous  treks  northward  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Boer  states  they  enslaved  the  natives 
without  interference  from  British  laws. 

At  the  very  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  in  its  infancy  selected 
Cape  Colony  as  a  place  to  establish  a  mission.  It 
gradually  pushed  northward,  starting  stations  among 
the  natives,  British  control  being  a  protection  and  a 
help.  But  in  questions  between  the  natives  and  col- 
onists these  early  missionaries  caused  trouble  with 
the  authorities  since  they  sided  with  the  natives  in  the 
quarrels,  insistent  for  the  rights  of  their  converts. 

A  few  years  later  than  the  London  Mission,  the 
498 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE 


499 


Wesleyans  sending  a  missionary,  Barnabas  Shaw,  to 
Ceylon,  allowed  him  for  some  reason  to  stop  at  Cape 
Town  and  begin  a  mission.  The  natives  to  be  num- 
bered by  the  million  were  so  numerous  and  the 
Europeans  so  few  that  most  of  the  development  of 
the  religious  life,  at  least  in  those  decades,  was  in  the 
mission  field.  Shaw  wanted  to  open  a  mission  among 
the  natives  under  British  and  Dutch  control  but  was 
forbidden  by  the  governor.  He  had  formed  a  be- 
ginning of  his  denomination  already  among  the 
soldiers  under  the  pious  care  of  a  sergeant.  As  he 
could  not  start  a  mission  near  Cape  Town  he  decided 
to  go  beyond  that  control  and  treked  northward. 
While  doing  so  he  was  met  by  a  chief  from  the  tribe 
of  Little  Namacquas  coming  to  the  colony  to  obtain 
a  missionary  to  work  in  his  tribe.  Mr.  Shaw  deem- 
ing this  a  call  from  Heaven,  offered  to  go  back  with 
the  chief  to  his  people.  He  formed  a  most  successful 
station  among  them,  setting  up  industrial  schools, 
teaching  agriculture  and  mechanical  trades,  as  well 
as  the  Bible.  This  case  was  comparable  to  those 
Indians  who  in  the  early  history  of  St.  Louis,  Mis- 
souri, came  from  the  far  northwest  coast  in  search 
of  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  religion. 

As  the  various  sections  of  the  new  state  were  being 
extended  and  settled,  the  Wesleyans  in  lack  of  other 
church  organizations  on  the  ground,  were  about  the 
only  ones  to  offer  religious  services  to  the  Europeans. 
Making  Grahamstown  a  kind  of  metropolitan  city 
for  themselves,  they  pushed  their  peculiar  circuit 
system  over  all  the  provinces  and  far  out  among  the 
natives. 


500  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

A  missionary  spirit  came  strongly  to  many  of  the 
native  converts.  To  teach  Christianity  to  their  fel- 
low natives  they  went  among  members  of  their  own 
tribes  or  to  distant  ones,  sometimes  to  those  who  were 
bitterly  hostile.  One  Aser  on  such  a  mission  passed 
with  three  companions  several  hundred  miles  north- 
ward to  Baniai.  The  passage  without  roads,  across 
the  plains,  through  forests  and  over  unknown  rivers 
was  most  difficult.  Added  to  such  difficulties  and 
dangers  were  the  greater  ones  from  lions  and  other 
ferocious  beasts.  At  night  they  had  to  climb  trees 
to  be  safe  from  the  prowling  marauders.  Success 
deserved  by  such  daring  and  devotion  was  reached. 
Among  their  fellows  they  established  a  prosperous 
mission. 

The  Lovedale  School,  founded  by  William  Govan, 
has  had  such  success  as  to  become  known  far  beyond 
South  Africa.  While  nominally  under  the  Scot  Pres- 
byterian Church,  it  was  wholly  from  the  start  non- 
sectarian,  open  to  all  people,  whites  and  blacks  work- 
ing and  studying  together.  It  was  one  of  the  earliest 
cases  of  industrial  schools  to  pagan  people,  the 
founder,  through  trustfulness  and  persistence  in 
overcoming  obstacles,  finally  making  his  idea  a  bril- 
liant success.  It  was  to  be  a  pioneer  and  example 
not  only  in  South  Africa,  where  similar  schools  have 
been  set  up,  but  far  from  that  locality  many  schools 
for  the  same  purpose  among  backward  peoples  have 
proved  the  supreme  worth  of  this  man's  leading. 

Gradually  the  various  missionary  societies  founded 
schools,  some  of  them  open  to  girls.  To  help  these 
early  beginnings  the  government  gave  grants  in  aid, 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  501 

and  often  partly  paid  the  teachers.  After  some 
decades  this  help  was  stopped.  The  wise  governors 
saw  the  worth  of  schools,  Clarendon  as  early  as  1807 
having  them  started.  In  1820  the  South  African 
College  was  founded,  being  aided  by  the  home  govern- 
ment and  by  the  people  of  the  colonies.  Sir  George 
Grey,  to  start  a  library  in  town,  gave  a  most  valu- 
able collection  of  rare  books  and  choice  manuscripts. 
To  this  gift  others  were  added  with  an  increase  of 
literature  and  kindred  accessories  of  a  valuable  public 
library.  The  twentieth  century  finds  a  hundred 
libraries  in  South  Africa,  eighty  newspapers,  a  fine 
government  college  with  arts  department  and  those 
of  law  and  medicine.  There  are  also  the  colleges  of 
the  various  denominations. 

English  speech  instead  of  Dutch  was  required  in 
official  business,  schools  being  opened  in  various  towns 
to  enable  all  to  attain  that  tongue.  In  1817,  the  im- 
mortal Moffat  began  his  missionary  tours  far  to  the 
north,  getting  among  the  natives  who  knew  little  of 
civilization  and  cared  less  for  it.  War,  rapine,  their 
pagan  rites,  the  awful  practice  of  the  witch  doctor, 
made  their  condition  most  deplorable.  These  people, 
the  Bantu  race,  were  of  the  splendid  South  African 
natives  known  as  the  Zulus,  Kafirs,  the  Metabals  and 
others.  They  are  not  of  the  negro  race  of  the  cen- 
tral regions  of  the  continent.  They  are  of  high 
mental  powers,  having  proven  themselves  capable  to 
a  great  degree  of  receiving  western  civilization.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  Christian  men  and  women  from 
Great  Britain,  from  the  continent  and  from  far-away 
America  should  press  religious  work  among  them. 


502  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

Moffat's  still  more  famous  son-in-law,  Livingstone, 
as  the  century  reached  its  middle,  pushed  northward 
still  beyond  the  trek  of  any  missionary.  The  wan- 
derlust possessed  him.  Northward  among  the  wild- 
est tribes  he  went,  then  westward  to  the  Atlantic 
coast,  returning,  passed  down  the  Zambesi  finding 
Victoria  Falls  and  opening  the  way  for  other  Euro- 
peans. Hunters  killing  the  huge  ferocious  beasts 
helped  clear  the  way  for  missionaries,  who  following 
Moffat  and  Livingstone  planted  their  stations  yet  to- 
ward Zambesi.  Foremost  of  all  was  Livingstone, 
going  far  beyond  the  Zambesi,  exploring  the  Lake 
Nyassa  region,  then  westward  to  the  fountains  of 
the  mighty  Congo,  there  to  die  among  his  devoted 
blacks.  How  much  he  did  to  open  the  center  of  the 
continent  to  commerce  and  missions,  to  aid  in  clos- 
ing that  open  sore  of  African  curse,  the  Arab  slave 
hunting,  is  not  yet  told.  Missions  have  followed  the 
track  of  the  devoted  explorer,  and  Central  Africa 
has  been  opened  from  every  side  to  the  Christian  re- 
ligion and  to  modern  progress. 

If  the  Anglican  Church  was  slow  in  setting  up  its 
organization  outside  the  military  stations,  once  estab- 
lished it  did  noble  work.  The  growing  towns  were 
occupied  by  it  nor  did  it  stop  with  the  British  people 
but  opened  missions  among  the  natives  like  the  other 
denominations.  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  aided  the  beginnings  with  money  as  did 
the  Glasgow  Society  in  Canada.  The  Episcopal  See 
of  Cape  Town  was  set  up  in  1843,  and  four  years 
later  Bishop  Gray  was  appointed  to  it  by  Letters 
Patent.  This  kind  of  an  appointment  by  the  home 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  503 

government  made  him  and  his  diocese  free  from  the 
province  of  Canterbury,  fortunately  giving  the 
colonial  church  freedom  from  many  traditions  and  re- 
strictions. Parishes  were  planned,  schools  estab- 
lished, colleges  started,  synods  founded  to  be  as  val- 
uable as  in  Canada. 

The  consecration  of  a  colonial  bishop  at  Cape 
Town,  the  right  claimed  by  local  authorities  and  al- 
lowed at  home,  led  the  way  to  a  broader  construction 
of  the  Anglican  rules  so  that  bishops  were  set  apart 
for  the  vast  Australasian  domains  as  the  church  in 
those  regions  took  form.  At  the  first,  to  the  Cape 
Town  diocese  were  joined  Mauritius,  St.  Helena,  and 
other  separated  colonies.  So  successful  was  this  de- 
nomination among  the  natives  that  the  nineteenth 
century  closed  with  its  membership  numbered  by  the 
ten  thousand.  Soon  too  a  native  chief  was  made  a 
priest  to  be  followed  by  other  natives  given  ordina- 
tion. The  affair  of  Bishop  Colenso  at  Natal  which 
created  quite  a  flurry  in  the  theological  world  worked 
rather  for  the  enlargement  of  the  religious  life  in 
South  Africa,  for  its  freedom,  as  well  as  for  free- 
dom of  religious  thought.  Colenso  wrote  some  books 
not  considered  orthodox,  his  view  of  the  Bible  being 
considered  heretical  and  the  Metropolitan  of  Cape 
Town  tried  to  depose  him.  To  this  action  Colenso 
objected,  as  also  to  the  rulings  of  the  home  church 
to  which  appeal  was  made.  After  much  controversy 
he  was  excommunicated  by  the  Cape  Town  Metro- 
politan and  though  he  set  up  by  himself  and  had  a 
considerable  following,  he  gradually  fell  out  of  sight. 
One  gain  was  that  the  Colonial  Church  by  its  course 


504  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

in  the  affair  was  declared  to  be  free  from  the  home 
church.  This  enabled  it  to  work  more  freely  in  local 
matters  and  to  become  more  efficient.  The  consecra- 
tion there  of  the  local  bishop  led  to  that  of  missionary 
bishops  to  Australasia,  giving  Patterson,  Selwyn, 
Harrington,  Tucker,  Sturne  and  others  to  the  un- 
folding work  in  those  far  regions. 

Cape  Colony  was  granted  a  legislature  in  1854, 
after  which  the  country  was  left  mostly  to  govern 
itself.  It  was  a  lucky  relief  to  the  colony.  It  was 
fortunate  in  Sir  George  Grey  as  governor,  sensible, 
pious,  cultured.  While  his  plans  for  a  federation  of 
the  various  colonies  did  not  carry,  they  paved  the 
way  for  such  a  union  later  on.  Slavery  abolished  in 
all  British  dependencies  in  1834  involved  that  of  the 
subject  Dutch,  and  of  the  twenty  million  pounds 
voted  to  indemnify  slave  owners,  a  million  and  a  quar- 
ter were  allowed  Cape  Colony.  The  slave  owners 
were  cheated  out  of  much  of  this  sum  by  dishonest 
agents  in  London  where  claims  alone  could  be  paid. 
Further  on,  after  the  great  trek  of  the  Boers  and  the 
founding  of  their  new  states,  they  held  many  natives 
in  slavery. 

So  injurious  to  natives  was  the  cheap  brandy 
manufactured  in  great  quantities  and  sold  to  them 
that  vigorous  steps  were  entered  upon  to  stop  its 
manufacture  by  the  colonists  and  sale  to  the  natives, 
but  little  came  of  it.  The  Cape  wines  were  debarred 
in  England  in  favor  of  the  lighter  French  wines  so 
that  ruin  stared  the  wine  makers  in  the  face.  On 
this  account  the  efforts  for  temperance  were  mostly 
futile,  the  material  good  of  the  colonists  in  financial 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  505 

fields  blocking  the  moral  good  for  the  natives.  How- 
ever, among  the  Fingoes,  a  tribe  especially  under  the 
direction  of  the  British,  the  Resident  Captain  Blythe 
persuaded  some  of  the  chiefs  to  give  up  strong  drink 
and  their  example  told  finely  on  the  people.  Later 
legislation  and  popular  opinion  have  mostly  stopped 
the  sale,  thus  protecting  the  natives  from  ruinous  re- 
sults. 

With  the  two  alluring  finds  of  gold  and  diamonds 
in  South  Africa  came  a  change  big  with  destiny  for 
that  country.  The  mines  of  gold  and  diamonds  were 
found  in  the  territory  of  the  Boers.  Friction  be- 
tween the  related  peoples  led  to  quarrels  and  notwith- 
standing modern  enlightenment  and  the  pacific  in- 
fluences of  the  Christian  religion,  war  came.  The 
history  of  the  Boers,  their  treks  and  states  founded 
by  themselves,  their  heroic,  sublime  struggle  against 
the  giant  power  of  Great  Britain  aroused  a  wave  of 
sympathy  for  them  the  world  over.  Yet  their  con- 
servatism stood  in  the  way  of  best  progress,  of  rights, 
freedom  and  Christianity.  The  dream  of  some  far- 
seeing  and  enthusiastic  Englishmen  of  a  united,  wide- 
spread Anglo-Saxon  nation  in  South  Africa,  has, 
after  they  have  passed  to  the  beyond,  come  as  a  price- 
less reality,  and  South  African  union  is  a  fact  with  its 
measureless  blessings  of  civil  and  political  and  re- 
ligious liberty. 


CHAPTER  LII 

Before  real  settlements  were  made  for  colonization 
in  New  Zealand  three  classes  of  European  people 
had  gone  there.  One  of  these  were  ship-loads  of  men 
in  search  of  seals  and  whales,  the  waters  about  these 
islands  teeming  with  these  mammals.  Such  men, 
heedless  of  native  rights  though  in  some  cases  married 
to  native  women,  regardless  of  Sundays,  turning  their 
harbors  into  a  saturnalia  on  pay  days,  were  in  most 
part  a  pest  yet  in  some  ways  did  good.  Then  an- 
other class  of  British  to  come  were  escaped  convicts 
from  the  Australian  penal  colonies  who  could  in  al- 
most any  craft  make  passage  across  the  sea.  Of 
course  they  were  not  desirable  immigrants.  Fre- 
quently associated  with  them  were  runaway  sailors 
who,  disliking  their  conditions  on  shipboard  and  the 
discipline,  took  French  leave  of  their  vessels,  these 
men  also  not  being  very  desirable  settlers.  The  third 
class  were  missionaries.  Here,  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  call  heard  in  so  many  other  places 
by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  was  heeded. 

The  Anglican  Church  was  early  on  the  ground  with 
its  mission  both  to  the  natives  and  to  the  transients. 
So  too  the  Wesleyans  were  early  at  work  with  their 
usual  success.  These  pioneers  were  in  due  time  fol- 
lowed by  other  missionaries  so  that  the  noble  pur- 
pose to  bring  to  the  backward  people  the  blessings 

of  a  better  life  was  in  operation.     These  missionaries 

506 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  507 

were  very  practical,  bringing  grain  seeds,  potatoes 
and  other  food  starts  for  the  eager  Maoris.  The 
story  is  told  of  a  native  returning  from  Europe  bring- 
ing some  wheat.  How  to  raise  bread  from  it  was  the 
puzzle.  They  had  already  seen  potatoes  dug  from 
the  ground  and  wondered  if  the  new  food  was  pro- 
duced the  same  way,  but  pulling  it  up  did  not  bring 
results.  Letting  some  of  it  ripen  they  were  at  a  loss 
how  to  prepare  the  grain.  Finally  with  a  hand  mill 
from  the  missionaries  they  ground  some  of  the  wheat 
to  flour  and  making  crude  bread  of  it  without  yeast 
were  transported  with  joy  at  the  new  food  and  its 
promise  of  good  eating. 

The  tales  of  toil  among  the  Maoris  have  seldom 
been  equaled  by  men  engaged  in  any  pursuit.  The 
people  to  whom  the  missionaries  went  and  for  whom 
they  sometimes  gave  their  lives,  were  cannibals,  were 
accustomed  to  infant  murder,  were  at  war  most  of 
the  time  between  the  clans  and  little  tribes,  and  yet 
were  full  of  splendid  promise  as  the  finest,  most  pro- 
gressive of  the  Polynesian  race  met  by  Europeans. 
The  fearless,  tireless  missionaries — what  will  not  men 
risk  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  needy — went  among 
this  people,  sometimes  being  present  at  their  cannibal 
feasts,  and  other  awful  practices,  but  gradually  ob- 
tained an  influence  over  them  for  better  things. 
Across  mountain  ranges  afoot,  through  swamps  over- 
grown with  stiff,  tall  grasses,  swimming  flooded  rivers, 
through  lurking  dangers  from  savage  man,  and  from 
hidden  evils  of  the  country,  the  missionaries  persisted 
in  going.  Seeing  the  great  endurance  and  power  for 
such  exposure  and  toil  by  Bishop  Selwyn,  even  the 


508  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

natives  said  it  was  a  gift  of  God  to  perform  those 
labors. 

If  sometimes  the  evil-minded  Europeans  provoked 
the  natives  to  plan  and  execute  massacres,  and  bloody 
reprisals  were  made,  the  missionaries  full  of  hope  for 
the  Maoris,  held  fast  to  their  purpose  of  leading  them 
to  the  better  things  of  western  life.  The  acute  na- 
tives soon  learning  the  difference  between  the  drunken 
whalers  and  the  devoted  missionaries,  would  beg  mis- 
sionaries to  come  and  settle  among  them.  So  with 
the  Bible  and  faith,  with  aids  of  material  things  to 
help  the  natives  in  the  upward  climb,  the  missionaries 
of  various  churches  went  and  usually  met  with  most 
pleasing  success.  At  the  first  the  missionaries  stood 
opposed  both  to  the  colonization  of  the  country  by 
English  and  its  annexation  to  the  Empire,  but  a 
movement  on  the  part  of  French  Catholics  to  colonize 
a  section  of  the  island  caused  the  missionaries,  in  fear 
of  the  malign  influence  of  those  troublesome  people, 
to  seek  annexation.  The  chiefs,  led  by  the  mission- 
aries to  accept  this  change,  in  a  kind  of  national  con- 
vention in  184*0  ceded  the  islands  to  the  Queen  of 
England.  Sir  George  Grey,  passing  from  the  gover- 
norship of  Cape  Colony,  could  say  to  the  Maoris  after 
only  eight  years  of  annexation,  "Churches  and  schools 
have  been  established,  lands  have  been  plowed,  mills 
have  been  built,  great  roads  have  been  made,  abun- 
dance prevails  everywhere." 

Some  interesting  attempts  at  colonizing  took  place 
in  the  new  and  attractive  islands.  One  of  these  at- 
tempts was  made  on  the  south  island  by  a  company 
of  Scot  Presbyterians.  It  was  to  be  wholly  sectarian 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  509 

and  of  a  class  of  people  such  as  the  Scots  would 
naturally  gather,  pious,  intense,  and  aiming  at  most 
practical  results.  It  did  not  succeed  in  creating  a 
Utopia  either  religiously  or  socially,  while  its  finan- 
cial results  were  sparce  and  lingering.  Later  when 
gold  was  discovered  on  that  island,  with  its  attendant 
rush  of  miners  and  traders,  the  colony  mostly  lost 
its  exclusive  characteristics  and  finally  became 
cosmopolitan.  Another  attempt  at  a  specialized 
colony  was  made  by  the  Anglican  Church  people. 
Perhaps  it  was  with  a  kind  of  double  reference  that 
they  called  themselves  Canterbury  Pilgrims.  This 
colony,  like  that  of  the  Scots,  was  designed  to  be  re- 
stricted to  one  sect  and  further  to  be  a  class  colony 
to  people  of  quality.  Land  was  secured,  farms  and 
domains  laid  out,  settlers  came,  but  neither  did  this 
colony  reach  Utopian  success.  Indeed,  the  young 
colonial  Anglo-Saxon  has  growing  up  in  his  breast 
a  detestation  of  class  distinction  as  well  as  of  secta- 
rian exclusiveness.  This  spirit  has  shown  itself  in 
politics,  hence  the  eager  strife  in  all  the  large  colonies 
for  legislatures  and  for  government  by  themselves. 
Out  of  this  spirit  came  the  American  independence. 
Later  Canada  led  off  in  this  spirit  and  purpose,  hav- 
ing been  followed  by  many  legislative  children  of  the 
British  constitution. 

Some  of  the  missionaries  before  annexation  had 
obtained  large  sections  of  land  from  the  pliant  and 
ignorant  natives  and  this  condition  occasioned  much 
friction.  Finally  adjustments  were  made  by  which 
the  missionaries  retained  some  of  the  lands  and  some 
were  given  up.  The  government  to  grant  aid  to  the 


510  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

schools,  required  industrial  training.  A  steady  im- 
provement in  education  went  on  among  both  natives 
and  colonists.  All  children  from  seven  to  thirteen 
were  kept  in  school,  and  schools  for  girls  were  opened 
which  were  successfully  used  by  them.  There  the 
girls  were  taught  sewing  and  political  economy  be- 
sides their  books,  while  boys,  besides  the  ordinary 
studies,  were  put  through  military  drill.  The  schools 
were  made  free,  secular,  and  compulsory.  As  the  New 
Zealand  University  was  opened  and  carried  on,  one- 
third  of  the  students  were  women  and  it  is  claimed 
that  it  is  the  first  university  in  the  British  empire  to 
confer  degrees  on  women.  As  a  reflex  influence  the 
home  government  recognized  those  degrees.  In  this 
matter  that  colony  grandly  followed  the  opportuni- 
ties given  women  in  the  American  universities. 

This  late  colony  of  Great  Britain  is  most  progres- 
sive in  spirit.  More  than  sixty  religious  sects  are 
represented  with  forty  percent,  of  the  church  people 
belonging  to  the  Anglicans,  half  as  many  to  the 
Presbyterians,  with  many  Catholics,  Wesleyans,  and 
other  denominations.  There  is  no  established  church. 
Here,  as  in  South  Africa,  the  Anglican  Church  is  free 
from  the  home  church.  So  progressive  is  this  new 
state  that  in  1893  the  franchise  was  granted  women 
and  this  is  found  to  be  an  important  addition  to 
rights.  The  Conservative  party,  not  the  Progres- 
sive, gave  this  franchise  and  "considered  it  a  fair 
and  logical  act  of  justice."  Women  are  not  al- 
lowed a  place  in  the  colonial  Parliament  but  are 
with  the  superior  chances  of  education  with  in- 
creasing numbers  entering  the  professions.  They 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  511 

fully  use  the  ballot  nor  has  it  had  any  tendency  to 
unsex  them  nor  has  the  franchise  caused  any  in- 
novations in  Parliamentary  life.  The  principle  of 
the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  and  the  use  of 
strong  drinks  is  steadily  gaining  ground.  A  unique 
method  of  arbitration  between  workmen  and  em- 
ployers entered  upon  in  1894  has  been  found  to 
act  most  admirably.  Under  it  strikes  have  been 
sent  to  the  limbo  of  unnecessary  trouble,  for  by  it 
both  workmen  and  employers  are  protected.  Trades 
unions  are  benefited  and  if  there  is  a  lingering 
fear  among  employers  that  in  the  long  run  the 
method  is  not  to  succeed,  they  seem  to  be  the  only 
ones  with  such  misgivings. 

The  missionaries  did  in  New  Zealand  what  so  many 
of  them  in  other  parts  of  the  world  have  done  for 
backward  peoples,  reduced  the  savage  speech  to 
written  form,  giving  to  the  eager  natives  books 
and  papers  and  the  precious  Bible.  Not  only  is  this 
work  done  by  the  devoted  missionaries  as  a  gift  be- 
yond computation  to  the  native  races,  but  philology 
has  been  enriched  and  the  world  at  large  been  given 
wider  information  by  these  studies.  Here  with  the 
native  legends  collected  and  put  into  print  and  thus 
preserved,  was  done  what  makes  every  student  of 
history  and  of  ethnology  and  of  comparative  re- 
ligions delighted  beyond  measure. 

The  piety  of  the  natives  sometimes  blended  the 
old  and  the  new.  So  eager  were  they  for  the  book 
that  told  them  of  the  new  faith  that  they  sometimes 
attributed  superstitious  powers  to  it.  A  party  of 
English  wanted  to  climb  one  of  the  imposing  moun- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

tains  but  were  denied  by  the  native  chief  having  con- 
trol of  that  locality  because  he  said  the  mountain 
had  been  made  sacred  by  their  forefathers.  Gold 
was  offered  but  in  vain.  The  chief  said  later  that 
if  the  New  Testament  had  been  offered  instead  of 
gold  the  vow  would  have  been  released.  The  mis- 
sionaries, as  in  South  Africa,  stood  between  the  na- 
tives and  the  British  and  also  knowing  the  speech 
and  customs  of  the  Maoris,  were  enabled  to  be  in- 
terpreters between  them  when  treaties  and  land  sales 
were  being  made.  In  some  instances  the  ability  to 
be  interpreters  both  of  speech  and  of  mutual  claims 
of  the  two  peoples  led  to  peace  where  else  had  been 
war.  After  the  remarkable  Han  Han  fanaticism 
ended  in  which  the  natives  tried  in  vain  to  drive 
the  British  out  of  their  country  there  arose  no  se- 
rious difficulty  that  could  not  be  allayed  by  the  con- 
ciliatory missionaries. 

Those  two  noble  societies,  that  of  Propagation, 
and  that  of  Knowledge,  greatly  aided  the  Anglicans 
as  in  other  colonies  with  money  to  start  missions, 
build  schools  and  colleges.  The  purpose  was  to 
reach  all  the  Maoris  with  modern  life  through  all 
the  fourteen  hundred  miles'  extension  of  the  great 
group  of  islands.  This  was  steadily  done  and  so 
successfully  that  in  no  lengthened  time  practically 
all  were  converted  to  Christianity.  A  nation  as 
under  the  vision  of  the  Bible  seer  was  born  to  God 
in  a  day. 

Here,  as  had  been  done  in  Canada  and  in  other 
colonies,  the  established  Legislature  and  the  Anglican 
Church  proceeded  to  clear  that  denomination  from 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  513 

binding  connection  with  the  home  church.  In  New 
Zealand  the  Anglican  Church  entered  the  twentieth 
century  with  six  dioceses  covering  the  whole  extent 
of  the  island.  Other  denominations  also  pushed 
their  work  till  all  the  Maoris,  though  a  vanishing 
race,  have  been  uplifted  in  all  ways  by  the  English. 
The  view  is  presented  of  another  great  territory 
large  enough  for  the  home  of  an  independent  nation 
colonized  by  the  restless  Anglo-Saxons,  a  country 
of  most  varied  climate  and  productions,  open  to  all, 
with  superior  rights,  free  churches,  untrammeled 
freedom,  and  universal  equality. 


CHAPTER  LIII 

Under  the  Southern  Cross  was  established  in  the 
nineteenth  century  another  great  colonial  nation  of 
the  British  Empire.  Australia  followed  Canada. 
There  was  a  virgin  continent  with  its  extended  coast 
and  wide  inland  expanse,  having  climate  varying 
between  tropical  heat  and  temperate  coolness.  It 
was  the  fairest  opportunity  ever  offered  a  people 
to  found  a  nation.  If  the  beginnings  of  coloniza- 
tion in  United  States  were  tainted  with  wrong  no- 
tions of  Cavalier,  of  Pilgrim  and  of  Puritan,  there 
was  little  of  the  virus  of  old  notions  taken  to  this 
latest  colony.  The  slight  urgency  for  aristocratic 
standing  was  brushed  aside  by  the  high  democratic 
spirit  of  the  settlers,  and  the  claim  at  first  put  in 
by  the  Anglican  precedence  was  compelled  to  yield 
to  the  rights  of  the  free  churches. 

Yet  the  beginnings  of  colonizing  in  Australia  were 
with  the  worst  classes  of  population.  Penal  estab- 
lishments were  the  first  form  of  settlement.  Such 
establishments  were  urged  as  "an  asylum  in  which 
felons  could  be  cheaply  kept,  and  from  which  there 
could  be  no  possibility  of  escape."  So  on  the  new 
shores,  even  before  the  eighteenth  century  closed, 
criminals  by  the  ship  load  were  dumped  whom  Eng- 
land could  not  take  care  of  in  her  jails  and  prisons. 
It  was  considered  good  riddance  to  bad  rubbish. 
Stern  military  officers  with  their  heartless  soldiery 

were  their   armed  guards.     The  formal  ceremonies 

514 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  515 

of  religion  poorly  met  the  restless  spirit  engendered 
by  their  home  crimes  and  their  strange  colonial  out- 
look. They  continued  vicious  and  insubordinate. 
Some  escaped  to  the  natives,  others  hid  in  the  bush 
to  die  of  exposure  and  starvation  and  a  few  be- 
came helpful  in  their  attempts  at  prosperity. 

The  need  was  for  real  settlers  of  upright  char- 
acter and  industrious  habits  with  knowledge  of  farm- 
ing and  stock  raising.  Money  from  the  sale  of 
public  lands  was  used  to  aid  immigration.  Along 
with  these  emigrants  went  the  ministers  of  the  de- 
nominations and  soon  churches  of  their  faith  were 
everywhere  in  evidence.  West  of  the  coast  of  New 
South  Wales  plains  of  almost  boundless  extent 
awaited  the  stock  raiser.  Most  of  the  settlers  upon 
those  cattle  ranches  and  sheep  runs  grew  rich  and 
with  their  wealth  took  many  of  the  amenities  of 
modern  life.  Not  only  did  they  take  books  and 
music  and  elegances  with  them,  but  they  helped  the 
settlement  of  the  preacher  and  of  the  schoolmaster 
among  them. 

Ministers  were  compelled,  as  in  the  early  history 
of  United  States  and  Canada,  to  become  itinerants 
in  following  the  scattered  families  far  into  the  wilds. 
The  diary  of  J.  D.  Merriweather  is  preserved  in  the 
libraries,  who,  as  an  itinerant  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  went  into  the  stock-raising  regions  to  per- 
form the  offices  of  his  denomination  to  the  people 
he  could  find.  The  pastoral  region  given  this  man 
by  the  Bishop  included  all  between  one  hundred 
forty  and  one  hundred  seventy-nine  degrees  of 
longitude  and  between  thirty-four  and  thirty-six 


516  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

degrees  south  latitude.  Hither,  thither  he  went, 
afoot,  by  canoe  of  slenderest  structure,  in  danger 
of  starvation,  of  being  lost  on  the  plains  or  in  the 
bush,  liable  to  be  drowned  in  the  overflowing  rivers, 
and  of  being  submerged  in  the  treacherous  bogs. 
Now  he  would  have  seven  to  hear  him  read  the 
church  services,  again  nine,  then  he  would  find  some 
Englishman  out  in  a  herder's  hut  alone  or  with  one 
helper,  one  to  watch  in  the  daytime  the  other  to 
guard  the  stock  by  night.  On  long  itineraries  he 
went,  to  baptize  those  needing  that  rite,  to  marry 
the  young  couples,  to  bury  the  dead.  A  year  of 
such  toil  injured  his  health  so  he  was  compelled  to 
give  it  up.  He  could  record  that  "one  needed  phys- 
ical strength,  with  moral  determination,  and  must 
look  for  approval  to  a  Higher  Power  than  his  fel- 
low man." 

He  came  into  little  contact  with  the  natives. 
These  had  mostly  been  killed  off  by  the  restless  set- 
tlers or  driven  farther  into  the  bush.  The  story 
of  the  Australian  natives  is  not  a  pleasant  one  to 
the  student  of  history.  As  soon  as  the  convicts  and 
colonists  were  established  at  Sydney  they  began  mal- 
treating the  poor  people,  killing  them  on  the  slight- 
est provocation,  destroying  their  canoes  along  the 
beach  and  in  many  ways  provoking  retaliation.  As 
the  natives  were  a  very  feeble  folk  they  were  unable 
to  defend  themselves  as  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand 
or  the  Redskins  of  America.  As  the  stock  raisers 
occupied  the  plains  for  grazing,  the  wild  animals 
upon  which  the  natives  mostly  relied  for  food  were 
killed  off  or  driven  beyond  the  reach  even  of  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  517 

scattered  aborigines.  Then  to  obtain  food  the 
famishing  natives  turned  pilferers  of  the  sheep  cotes, 
of  hen  yards,  gardens  and  granaries,  so  provoking 
the  pioneers  as  to  be  shot  down  like  voracious  beasts. 
Organized  hunts  like  those  to  destroy  wolves  in  west- 
ern America  were  formed,  it  is  said,  on  which  the 
natives,  men,  women  and  children,  were  killed  at 
sight.  In  Queensland  they  were  sometimes  flogged 
like  abject  slaves. 

But  let  it  be  said  to  the  praise  of  certain  new  set- 
tlers that  limited  attempts  at  better  things  were 
made.  Some  of  the  British  turned  missionaries  to 
the  natives,  though  they  were  so  scattered  and  of 
such  nomadic  habits  that  sometimes  a  mission  sta- 
tion after  a  while  would  be  left  without  a  native, 
or  a  pupil  in  the  school.  A  few  schools  near  the 
large  cities  were  set  up  in  which  a  limited  success 
was  reached  in  civilizing  those  most  savage  people. 
Food  and  blankets  were  distributed  by  some  of  the 
colonial  governments  to  them,  as  if  in  compensa- 
tion for  the  kangaroos  and  wombats  driven  out  by 
the  sheep  herders  and  cattle  men. 

As  could  be  expected  in  a  convict  settlement  the 
use  of  strong  drinks  was  a  most  dreadful  curse.  At 
first  little  effort  was  made  to  keep  them  away  from 
either  convicts  or  natives,  since  a  most  lucrative 
trade  in  them  arose.  But  such  disorder  and  crime 
came  of  the  use  of  liquor  that  the  government 
passed  most  drastic  laws  against  its  coming  into  the 
new  settlements  and  its  sale  or  transfer  to  the  black 
fellows.  Pity  it  is  that  such  a  barbarism  should 
persist  in  Christian  civilization.  As  early  as  1801, 


518  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

the  Hawkesbury  settlers  as  an  outcome  of  their  dis- 
solute habits  sought  to  have  the  courts  so  arranged 
that  creditors  could  not  attain  judgments.  Early 
at  Botany  Bay,  the  excessive  use  of  liquors  by  the 
settlers  produced  such  wild  conduct  as  greatly  to 
depress  the  good  purpose  of  the  colony.  As  Queens- 
land took  colonial  form  and  grew,  a  law  of  local 
option  was  enacted  with  good  results.  The  modern 
efforts  for  temperance,  the  Good  Templars,  Tee- 
total Associations,  Bands  of  Hope,  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union,  and  other  organizations 
with  the  same  object  in  view,  have  been  in  active 
operation  throughout  all  Australasia.  Possibly  the 
churches  have  not  been  as  pronounced  for  temper- 
ance as  they  should  have  been. 

An  experiment  for  caring  for  juvenile  dependents 
has  been  undertaken  and  appears  full  of  promise. 
Instead  of  putting  them  in  asylums  or  reformatories 
in  masses,  they  are  put  out  into  families,  one  or  two 
or  three  at  a  place,  still  the  wards  of  the  govern- 
ment. Philanthropic  people  serve  as  committees 
to  look  after  these  boarders,  making  reports  to 
government  authorities.  So  far  this  system  has 
been  most  valuable.  In  many  instances  the  children 
are  so  liked  that  they  are  adopted  by  the  people 
holding  them.  Indeed,  as  could  be  guessed  would  be 
done  in  this  latest  Anglo-Saxon  nation,  great  at- 
tention has  been  paid  to  the  needs  of  the  vagrant 
young,  the  poverty  smitten,  the  vicious,  the  flotsam 
and  jetsam  of  modern  times.  Asylums  have  been 
built  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  for  the  weak  minded, 
for  the  insane,  for  the  unprotected.  Care  has  been 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  519 

taken  to  make  these  institutions  pleasant  and  help- 
ful to  the  unfortunate  occupants.  One  has  the 
sweet  name  of  Hazelwood.  About  it  are  gardens, 
orange  groves,  vineyards,  these  helping  in  the  kindly 
care  given  the  inmates.  Proper  boards  in  connec- 
tion with  the  governments  of  the  various  colonies 
have  looked  after  these  benevolent  institutions, 
showing  paternalism  in  this  and  many  other  ways 
as  the  highest  duty  of  government.  As  early  as 
1852,  a  society  in  Sydney  was  formed  to  save  the 
street  arabs,  the  interest  so  increasing  that  in  no 
lengthening  time  buildings  were  erected  in  which  a 
thousand  children  could  be  cared  for.  Teachers 
were  employed  for  these  children  and  great  care  was 
taken  to  make  good  people  out  of  the  waifs.  An 
orphan  asylum  was  built  at  Parramatta  with  Sisters 
of  Charity  putting  in  their  kind  ministries  with  good 
results.  Ragged  schools  attended  to  the  wants  of 
such  children  as  could  be  induced  to  attend  them. 
Christian  philanthropy  passed  by  none.  To  teach 
the  spirit  of  economy,  savings  banks  where  children 
could  deposit  a  part  of  their  earnings  have  been 
established  and  the  children  taught  to  lay  up  money 
for  the  needs  of  later  days. 

Among  those  far-sighted  pioneers  in  a  new  con- 
tinent education  has  held  an  important  place.  The 
imperfect  modes  of  England's  educators  were  at 
first  loosely  followed  and  the  missionaries  of  the  va- 
rious sects,  aware  of  the  needs  of  schools,  had  estab- 
lished them  which  the  government  for  some  decades 
aided  with  grants  of  money.  But  this  was  a  fruit- 
ful cause  of  friction  and  by  the  third  quarter  of  the 


520  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

century  had  mostly  ceased,  free  secular  schools  only 
receiving  government  aid.  Attendance  on  these  is 
compulsory.  Illiterates  are  few.  Universities  have 
been  founded,  the  one  at  Sydney  as  early  as  1851, 
and  are  affiliated  with  the  British  universities.  A 
system  for  carrying  out  modern  needs  has  been  suc- 
cessfully entered  upon  all  over  Australia, — the  estab- 
lishment of  Mechanical  Institutes.  They  have  been 
set  up  by  the  score  under  the  governments.  In 
them  are  taught  many  forms  of  industry,  technical, 
mechanical,  arts,  mining  and  others.  To  a  race 
as  strenuous  for  work  as  ours  such  institutes  must 
yield  vast  good.  Besides  these,  evening  schools  are 
common  for  adults  unable  to  attend  the  other  ones. 
Before  the  middle  of  the  century  the  convict  sys- 
tem came  to  an  end.  In  1836,  of  the  two  hundred 
thousand  people  in  New  South  Wales  one-half  were 
convicts.  The  free  settlers  did  not  want  the  fair 
promise  being  wrought  out  with  painful  experience 
to  be  poisoned  any  longer  with  that  system.  The 
arrival  of  the  last  load  or  two  sent  to  Sydney  al- 
most caused  a  riot  and  they  were  permitted  to  land 
only  when  definitely  hired  to  some  of  the  people. 
To  be  relieved  of  the  incubus  that  had  weighted 
down  the  fair  land  for  half  a  century  was  an  un- 
speakable relief.  Gradually  the  freed  ones  had  be- 
come mostly  absorbed  in  the  better  society  grown 
up.  But  so  pressing  was  the  demand  for  labor  that 
for  a  time  Indian  coolies  and  Chinese  laborers  and 
Polynesian  islanders  were  imported,  especially  in 
Queensland,  often  to  receive  treatment  little  better 
than  in  downright  slavery.  The  outcry  against  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  521 

system  has  called  for  modifications  in  it  to  the  re- 
lief of  those  human  beings. 

Judging  from  the  great  number  of  communicants, 
from  the  church  buildings,  from  missions  of  various 
kinds,  it  can  be  seen  that  a  great  majority  of  the 
people  going  to  Australia  have  been  pious  ones. 
Census  returns  have  shown  the  Anglican  Church  to 
be  the  most  numerous,  with  Catholics  standing  next, 
followed  by  the  Wesleyans  and  Presbyterians,  while 
Independents,  Baptists,  and  other  sects  by  the 
score  have  many  people  attending  their  churches. 
Preachers  of  the  various  faiths  have  covered  all  the 
settled  portions  of  the  continent  with  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible.  One  visiting  Sydney,  Adelaide,  Perth, 
and  other  important  cities  is  impressed  by  the 
magnificent  cathedrals  of  those  denominations  put- 
ting up  such  structures,  and  he  is  delighted  with 
the  beauty  of  the  churches  of  the  sects  less  pre- 
tentious in  their  buildings.  As  he  approaches  lesser 
towns  along  the  coast  or  inland  the  church  build- 
ings and  their  heaven-pointing  spires  attract  the 
vision  at  the  earliest  moment.  To  attend  those 
various  places  of  worship  is  to  find  them  full  of 
devout  persons.  Before  the  century  was  three- 
fourths  passed  all  state  aid  to  the  various  churches 
ceased,  so  that  in  the  colonies  organized  with  legis- 
latures of  their  own,  no  established  church  is  al- 
lowed but  all  are  free.  This  gives  the  religious  con- 
sciousness its  coveted  liberty  and  the  right  it  knows 
to  be  its  own  for  free  development.  Dioceses  have 
been  cut  out  by  the  Anglicans  and  Catholics  and  the 
country  covered  with  these  plans.  Synods  and  Con- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF 

ferences  and  Conventions  mark  the  complete  organ- 
ization of  other  denominations.  Most  efficient  is  the 
religious  state  under  such  active  church  life  carried 
on  in  sympathetic  fraternity.  In  all  the  public 
schools  religious  instruction  from  the  Bible  is  in  some 
way  required.  Country  life,  as  could  be  expected, 
has  in  many  ways  been  made  bright  and  sweet  by 
the  cultured,  devout  men  and  women  going  to  the 
isolated  work  of  ranchers.  The  cosy  chapel  on 
the  great  estate,  attractive  to  the  large  number  of 
people  employed,  the  music  played  by  the  wife  or 
daughter  of  the  cattle  ranger,  the  country  choir  of 
no  mean  capacity,  offset  the  restrictions  and  hard 
toil,  the  lonely  location  and  the  absence  of  more 
stirring  city  life.  At  such  stations  the  rancher, 
if  no  minister  comes  to  him,  frequently  reads  the 
service  and  guides  the  religious  hour. 

The  richest  kind  of  gold  deposits  found  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  brought  a  vast  inrush  of 
miners.  The  government  was  poorly  prepared  to 
deal  with  such  masses  of  people,  the  churches 
could  but  illy  meet  the  calls  that  arose.  Vice  multi- 
plied. Robbery  and  murder  made  the  country  un- 
safe for  travel  and  traffic.  But  the  very  effort  to 
clear  the  country  of  such  disorderly  conditions  and 
elements  no  doubt  helped  the  colonies  for  the  last 
great  act  in  the  nineteenth  century  for  Australia, 
its  federation. 

Australia's  seven  provinces,  after  suggestions 
from  governors  and  others,  planned  a  convention 
in  1891  at  Sydney.  The  plans  were  patterned  much 
after  United  States.  This  plan  would  give  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  RACE  523 

highest  political  rights,  national,  religious,  social, 
personal.  The  Parliament,  as  was  planned,  was  not 
permitted  to  make  any  laws  hindering  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  religion  or  to  make  any  religious  test.  To 
every  person  was  given  an  equal  share  in  political 
power,  thus  insuring  the  rights  of  individuals.  These 
recommendations  to  the  home  government  were 
gradually  worked  out  toward  the  complete  federa- 
tion. 

What  kind  of  people  do  all  these  kind  gifts  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  produce?  Shaped  by  democracy, 
with  an  open  field  and  wide  vision,  granted  free  re- 
ligion and  free  speech,  made  free  also  from  some  old 
world  conservatism  and  exclusive  notions,  the  Aus- 
tralian of  the  twentieth  century  is  self-possessed, 
recognizes  his  equality  to  any  other  human  being, 
is  brave,  loyal,  devout,  a  person  of  brawn  and  brain, 
of  faith  and  confidence.  He  is  a  man,  one  fashioned 
by  the  development  through  vast  generations  of  nat- 
ural attainments,  and  by  thirteen  centuries  of  Chris- 
tian gifts  and  growth. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Anglo-Saxon. i,  16,  62,  414 

Augustine    4 

Aidan 10, 19 

Art 37»  302 

Alfred  the  Great 59 

Athelstan 70 

"Articuli  Cleri" 109 

Architecture   141 

African  Slavery 232 

Armada   234 

Arminius 244 

Arminianism    277 

Act  of  Toleration 304 

Act  of  Settlement 308 

Aikenhead,  Thomas  . .  318 

Anti-Prinitarianism    . .  323 

Arminian  Magazine  . .  348 

Addison 359 

American  War 371 

Anglican  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society 377 

Asbury,   Francis    .  .441-444 

American   Revolution..  443 

And- Slavery  Society. .  450 

Anti-Saloon  League  . .  455 
American      Board     of 

Foreign   Missions...  466 

Anglican  Church 

502,  513,   521 

Australia 514 

Asylums 518 


B 


Bertha   3,43 


Bible.. 23,  162,  197,  211, 
213,  243,  364,  385,  405, 
413,  419,  422,  511,  522 

Boniface    27,64 

Beede   27,  57,  64 

Beowulf    56 

Brunanburh    57 

Becket,  Thomas 96 

Bacon,  Roger   106,  147 

Book       of       Common 

Prayer    186,  256 

Black  Death in 

Bloody  Six  Articles. . .   180 

Book  of  Liturgy 193 

Bishop  Jewel's  Apology  220 
Bacon,  Lady  Anne. . . .  221 

Brownists    228 

Browne,  Robert 228 

Bridges    267 

Burroughs    267 

Baptists 268,  437 

Best    269 

Baxter,  Richard   285 

Barrow    291 

Barren,  Isaac 298 

Bill  of  Rights  ....307,  310 

Bribery 308,  326 

Bishop  Burnet 308 

Bolingbroke    314 

Barclay    317 

British  Museum 330 

Bradburn,  Samuel 351 

Brotherhood  of  Man.. 

372,  411 

Ball,  Miss 373 

Blue  Stocking  Clubs. .   373 
Berkley,  Bishop   375 


527 


528 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Baptist  Missionary  So- 
ciety     376 

"Broad  Church" 392 

Baptist  Union 394 

Booth,  William 398 

Bickersteith,   Mr 414 

Bible  Societies 

..368,  415,  4i9»  46i,  467 
Bennett,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  424 

Burns,  John  425 

Bees,  Miss   426 

Baltimore,  Lord 430 

Berkley,    Sir  Wm 432 

Boer  War 5°5 

Bands  of  Hope 518 


Christianity    17 

Coleman    18 

Cuthbert    23 

Clergy    52 

Caedmon   58 

Cynewulf 58 

Cluny   69 

Canute   69,82 

Church  Service 72 

Court  corruption 85 

Crusaders    92, 123 

Croylan    93 

Constitution  of  Claren- 
don        96 

Council  of  Constance.   126 

Carthusians    127 

Cistersians    128 

Cambridge  University. 

-. 138,  192 

Chicheley    138 

Chaucer 148 

Constitutional  growth.   150 

Cranmer   164,  177,  203 

Cromwell,  Thomas.  171,  177 


PAGE 

Convocation    178,  184 

Commission,  The 190 

Cecil    210,  223 

Calvinistic  teachings..  214 

Clerics   215 

Catholics   ...216,  229,  281, 

319,  334,  339,  382,  393,  439 
Cartwright,  Thomas . . . 

217,  226 

Calvin's    Institutes 220 

Charles  First   ...  251,  276 

Covenant,  The 262 

Catechism,  Lesser  and 

Greater    262 

Church  Reform 262 

Chillingworth 264 

Cromwell,  Oliver   .... 
270,  272,  278,  284, 286,  289 

Cavaliers  275 

Calvinism  265,  277 

Charles  Second  283 

Change  in  literature . .  290 

Cudworth    291 

Clarendon   293 

Cabal    293 

Convocation 294,  305 

Conventicles  295 

Corporation  Act  305 

Cottonian    Manuscripts  330 

Claim  of  Right 336 

Christian  Library 348 

Christian   Perfection.,   389 
Countess    of    Hunting- 
don     351 

Coke,  Dr 352,  375 

Calvinistic    Methodism  354 
Circulating   Schools...  363 

Clappam  sect  268 

Clarkspn    368 

Christian    Observer...  368 
Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety     368 


INDEX 


529 


PAGE 

Christian      Knowledge 

Society 374 

Carey,  Wm 376 

Corporation  Act   382 

Catholic  Emancipation  396 
Children  Crusaders  . .  397 

Corruption    401 

Christian   people 419 

China   416 

Catholic  Missions  ....  419 
Cuthberton,  John  ....  437 

Civil  War 451 

Colleges   for  women . .  456 

Colleges    139,  457 

Chautauqua  plan  ....  460 
Christian  Science  ....  464 
Carnegie,  Andrew  ....  470 

Church  building   471 

Columbian  Exhibition.  473 

Clark,  Rev.  F.  E 476 

Christian  Endeavor  So- 
ciety     476 

Clark  of  Oberlin    477 

Clergy  Reserve   488 

Constitutional       Free- 
dom     493 

Canadian  Pacific  R.R..  493 

Canada 495 

Colenso,  Bishop 503 

Cape  Colony 504 

Convict  system   520 


Dunstan 46, 67 

Danish  devastations  . .     66 

Domesday  Book 90 

Dominicans 105 

Decade  of  Ballinger..  220 

Deism   269,  340 

Dissenters  

..282,  294,  300,  315,  437 


PAGE 

Duke  of  Savoy 290 

Defense  of  rights 303 

Dean  Swift 314 

Decrease    of    religious 

life    325 

Drunkenness 327 

Doddridge,    Philip    ...   356 

Dartmouth,    Lord 362 

Dissenters'  Chapel  Bill  402 

Darwin,  Charles   408 

Denominations  in  Am- 
erica     436,  465 

Dean,  Nettie   478 


E 


Ethelbert  4,49 

Earliest  Library  6 

Edwin  9 

Ethelberga  9,  45 

Earpwald  10 

Earswida 33 

Ethelgiva 46-60 

Elfric  61 

Edmund 66 

Edward  83 

Edward  Second 108 

Edward  Third 109,  113 

Eton  139 

English  speech  149 

English  Reformation.. 

156,  166 

Erasmus  158 

English  Bible  164,  181 

England  and  the  Papacy  185 

Edward,  Sixth 189 

Eucharist  194 

Established  Church  . . 

196,  219,  227,  236 

Eagle,  George  207 

Elizabeth 210,  231,  237 

Erastianism  255 


530 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Execution    of    Charles 

First  277 

End  of  Religious  Wars  286 
Elevation  of  the  people  333 
Evangelistic  movement 

361,  362,  382,  413 

Erskine  brothers 365 

Education   

. .  .385,  413,  434,  456,  519 
Ecclesiastical       Titles' 

Bill   397 

English  people 401 

English        Educational 

System 406 

Exeter  Hall  Centenary 

Conference   418 

Ecumenical  Conference 

420,  467 

Edwards,  Jonathan  . . .  434 

Embury,  Philip   441 

Emancipation  Procla- 
mation   452 

Eddy,  Mrs 464 

Evangelical   Alliance.. 

467,  472 

"Evangelization  of  the 
World  in  this  Gen- 
eration"    478 


Finan  19 

Franciscan    105 

Feudalism 132 

Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs  214 

Falkland,  Lord 269 

Fairfax 273 

Forty-two  Articles 286 

Fanaticism    299 

Fasting  and  Prayer. . .  310 

Fisher,  Mary  316 

Fairs    328 


PAGE 

Fletcher,  John 361 

Fry,  Elizabeth 362 

Five  Mile  Act 382 

Fire  Arms 418 

Fiji  Islands 420 

Famine  in  India 421 

Faneuil  Hall 430 

Freedom    in    religious 

belief    442 

Fox,  George 450 

Federation    of    Amer- 
ican Churches   467 

Federation  in  Australia  522 

G 

Government    51 

Godwine    84 

Guilds    134 

"Gospellers"   195 

Gunpowder  plot 242 

Goodwin    267 

Great  Assize 276 

Grand  characters 309 

George  First 322,  326 

Gibbon  341 

George  Third 367 

Glasgow       Missionary 

Society 378 

Gordon,  Lord  George.  381 

General  Baptists  385 

Gough,  John  B 454 

Good  Templars  ...454,  518 

Govan,  Wm 500 

Gray,  Bishop  502 

H 

Hilda   46 

Harold  86 

Henry  First   9, 

Henry  Second 


INDEX 


531 


PAGE 

Henry  Third 102 

Henry  Fourth  102 

Huss 108 

Henry  Fifth  125 

Harding  128 

Henry  Seventh  139 

Hospitals  144,  470 

Henry  Eighth  ....160,  188 
Hooker's  Ecclesiastical 

Polity 236 

Hampden  264,  276 

Hobbes  269 

Herbert,  Lord 269 

Home  273 

Huguenots  290 

Holy  Living  and  Dying  291 
High  Church  and  Low 

Church 301 

Hogarth  330 

Handel 330 

Hume 341 

Holy  Club 343 

Holy  Cummunion  ....  351 

Hymnology  355,  403 

Hill,  Sir  Richard 362 

Huntington,  Countess . 

362,  364,  375 

Harris,  Howell  364 

Howard,  John 367,  371 

High  Church  Trend. . .  392 
Huxley,  Professor 

Thomas  409 

Hills,  Mrs 419 

Home  for  lepers 422 

Hogg,  Quinton  423 

Heck,  Barbara 441 


PAGE 
Ireland    

. . .  .98,  187,  257,  337,  365 

Irish   Rebellion    258 

Insurrection  in 258 

Independents    267 

Indulgences    301 

Inventions 370 

Irving,  Edwards   396 

Indian  Territory 446 

Immigration  to  Amer- 
ica     447>496 

Inner  Mission,  The...  473 

Itinerants 488,    490,  515 

Institutional    Church..  473 
Intoxicants 504,  518 


Jews 79,  129,  282,  448 

John    100,  152 

Jaffrid    138 

James  of  Scotland 239 

Jeffreys    274 

James  Second  ....300,  303 

Jones,  Griffith 363 

Japan  416 

Jacobs,  John  444 

Juvenile  dependents...  518 


K 


Knights  Templars 109 

King's  College 139 

Knox,  John. .  .185,  206,  213 
King's  Book  of  Sports  262 

Ken   3°6>  35$ 

Keble,  John   388 

Knowledge    512 


Influence  of  Christian- 
ity   


78     Library    23 


532 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Lindisfarne 5° 

Literature. 55,  291,  334,  422 

Lanfranc 91 

Lollards    118,  125 

Lower  classes 121 

Langland 148 

Latimer   203 

Liberty  seekers 223 

Laud    251,  263 

Long  Parliament 263 

Latitudinarian  views . . 

270,  297 

Levelers    270 

"Law,     Religion,    Lib- 

erty" 275 

Lutheranism 285 

League  and  Covenant.  293 

Lecturers 298 

London  Missionary  So- 
ciety     377 

Lancaster    386 

Liquor  traffic 418 

Liberal  Ministry 425 

Lutherans   440 

Lakin,  Thomas    444 

Livingstone 502 

M 

Monasteries 32,  40,  127 

Manual  labor 34 

Music    38,  330 

Metals 39 

Monks    89 

Magna  Carta.io2,  152,  170 
Margaret  of  Richmond  139 

Manuscripts    141 

Mortmain    153 

Mill,  Walter 185 

Mary 199,  208 

Martin  Marprelate 
Tracts    234 


PAGE 

Massacre   of    St.   Bar- 
tholomew      235 

Mayflower    250 

Mob  violence  255 

Montrose 273 

Milton 275,  285 

Methodism    

••343'  347«  349>  44i,  494 
More,  Hannah  . . .  .362,  370 

Moravians    365,  440 

McBurney,  John   366 

Macaulay,  Zachary  . . .  368 

Martyn,  Henry 368 

Missionary  work 

374,    376,    384>   387,   412, 

413,  420 
Martineau,  James  ....  402 

Medical  work 413 

Mildmay  Conference. .  414 

Mohammedans 415 

Missionary    Societies..  415 

Morrison   416 

Moffatt,  Mrs 419 

Metaphysical  Society..   425 

Moody,  D.  L 433 

Mathew,  Father 454 

Mormons 463 

Miller,    Wm 464 

Mott,  John  R.  478,  479,  480 

Moffatt    500 

Maoris    507 

Merri weather,   J.    D. ..   515 


N 


Nuns    36,  44,  129 

Norman    Conquest    ..82,88 

New   Testament    117 

Nonconformity    

195,  222,  296 

Nightingale,    Florence.   276 
Nye    267 


INDEX 


533 


PAGE 

New  class  of  clerics..  297 

Nonjurors    305 

Nelson,  John   351 

Norris    358 

Newton,  John   . .  359 

National      Census      in 

1851    v...  383 

National    University. .   386 
Newman,   John   Henry  388 

No.  90  389 

Native   races    445 

New    Zealand    506 


O 


Oswald    13.28 

Oxford  University  . . .   136 

Object  of  Religion 191 

Owen,  Dr.  John   285 

Occasional  Conformity 

Act   321 

Olney  Hymns    359 

Oliver,  Thomas 360 

Orangemen's    Associa- 
tion     367 

O'Connell    383,  401 

Oxford  Movement 388 

Oceanica    417 

Opium  traffic   418 

Oglethorpe,    General..   431 

Ohio   Crusade    454 

Owen,  Robert  Dale   . .  462 


Pope  Gregory   3 

Paulinus    7 

Penda    10 

Peada    13 

Pilgrimage 47,    49,  124 

Parishes    53 


PAGE 

Parish  Priests   63 

Personal  life   72 

Penance    73 

Prayers  for  the  dead.  75 

.Purgatory  75 

Papacy    80 

Peter's  Pence   .  .81,  90  206 

Philip  Augustus    101 

Pope's  draft 103 

"Provisors"..  .no,   112,  153 

Preminure    112,  153 

Peasants'  Revolt 115 

Printing    press    

120,    159,   233,    314,   331, 

373,  374,  421 

Paper    making    159 

Pole,  Reginald   ...201,  204 

Protestants    203 

Persecutions    208 

Prayer  Book    213 

Puritans    

217,221,225,229,237,265 
Presbyterianism    

139,   261,  279 

Parliament    247 

Pym    264,  276 

"Power  of  the  Keys".  266 
Parliamentarians    ....   275 

Prince   Charles    292 

Prisons    295,  328,  371 

Plague   298 

Penn,  Wm....3OO,  317,  430 

Prince   of   Orange 311 

Philanthropists    

3*i>   470,  471 

Pagan  rites 318 

Plans  of  preaching. . .  351 

Pope    360 

Perronet,    Edward. . . .  360 

Power  of  song   360 

Palatines    365 

Patriotic  movement   . .  366 


534, 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Propagation    Society . . 

374,  512 

Price    379 

Pike,  Rev.  J.  G 380 

Parker,  Dr.  Peter 413 

Pundita,    Ramabai 421 

Q 

Sueen's  College 139 
uakers    

280,   316,   339,   382,   383, 

438,  450 

Queen  Anne 321 

Queen  Victoria  400 


Relics  28 

Revival  of  monasti- 

cism  68 

Rufus,  Wm 92 

Religious  houses 95 

Renascence  ..157,  230,  410 

Richard  First 99 

Revivals.  105,  364,  368,  370 

Religious  spirit  145 

Reformation,  The  . . .  198 

Religious  decay 248 

Red  Cross  276 

Rowland,  Daniel 364 

Robe 365 

Religious  life  

365,  423,  428,  432 

Relief  Bill  366 

Raikes,  Robert  373 

Reform  Bill  401 

Ramsey,  Sir  Henry...  422 

Reed,  Miss  Mary 422 

Rights  425 

Rum,  New  England..  434 
Reform  Church 440 


PAGE 

Rechabites    454 

Religious   freedom    . . . 

..462,  481,  483,  486,  523 
Rockefeller,  John  D. . .  470 


Schools   ..20,  30,  135,  140, 
318,    386,   413,   422,   500, 

515,  5i7 

Slaves    40,   120,  232 

Social   life    41 

Synods 76,  103,  107 

Stephen    95,  151 

Sacrament    107 

Statute  of  Heresy 119 

Spirit  of   democracy..  120 

Serfs    130 

St.  John's   139 

Sports  143.  274 

Superstitions    179 

Star  Chamber   226 

Solemn     League     and 

Covenant    256,  261 

Scotland    255 

School  of  writers  ....  285 

Scots    287 

Seneca  of  England  . . .  291 
Saints'          Everlasting 

Rest    291 

Stillingfleet    291,298 

South,  Robert 298 

Sancroft    306 

Scepticism    ..309,   339,  342 

Schism  Act 322 

Sects   323,  333 

Sacheverell    335 

Steele,  Anne    359 

Stennell,  Samuel 360 

Soul  hunger  met 367 

Slave  trade  .  .369,  415,  449 


INDEX 


535 


PAGE 

Society  for  abolition  of 

slave  trade   369 

Sunday   schools    ..373,  459 
Scottish     Society     for 
propagating      Chris- 
tian knowledge   ....  377 

Sacramentarians   390 

Sisterhoods    392,  423 

Spurgeon,   Charles   . . .  403 

Spurgeon,  Mrs 404 

Scientific    knowledge..  408 

Spencer,  Herbert    409 

Settlements    423 

Science  and  religion..  426 

Shaw,  Wm 444 

Second  Advents  .  .448,  464 
Spiritual  need  of  immi- 
grants     448 

Scientific    Temperance 

Instruction    455 

Shakers   463 

Spiritualism    464 

Student    Volunteer 

Movement . .  467,  477,  478 
Sage,  Mrs.  Russell  . .  470 
'Salvation  Army ..  398,  423 

Socialism    483 

South  Africa  498 

Shaw,  Barnabas   499 

Soicety     for    propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel..   502 
Selwin,  Bishop   507 


Theodore    21 

"Truce  of  God" 77 

Thorpe's    Testament..   119 

Trivium    136 

Tyndale's   New  Testa- 
ment   160,  163,  177 

Thirty-nine  Articles  . .   197 


PAGE 
Tillotson    291 

Test  Act 296,  305,  382 

Transition    317 

Toplady,  Augustus  ...  360 

Thornton,   Henry    368 

Theological        Contro- 
versy      380 

Tractarian    Movement.  388 

Tracts    389 

Tyndall,  Prof.  John...  409 

Tract  Societies   

415,  4i9>  462,  467 

Thoburn    419 

Telugus   4*9 

Transvaal  Mission 420 

Toynbee,  Arnold 425 

Toynbee  Hall 425 

Tennents,  The ...  433 

Temperance    organiza- 
tions     453 

Thompson,   Mrs.   Eliza  455 
Theological    Schools. .  457 

Trappist  sect   462 

Thanksgiving  468 

Tewksbury  of  Harvard  477 

U 

Ulfilas    16 

"Use  of  Sarum" 92 

Upper   classes    121 

Utopia    159 

Uniformity   245 

Universities 265,  289 

Unitarianism    

...268,  310,  379,  382,  395 

Union    337 

Union    of    church    and 

state   431 

V 

Vision  of  Piers  Plow- 
man       148 


536 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Vagabondage   ........  175 

Vane,  Sir  Harry  .....  264 

Venn,  John    .........  368 

Vincent,  John  H  .....  460 

W 

Wilfred   ............  16,23 

Willibrord  ...........     25 

Woman  .  .42,  314,  346,  373, 

416,419,426,427,456,510 

Whitby    .............     46 

Wealth    .............     65 

William    .............     87 

William,    Rufus    .....     92 

Wyclif   ..............    114 

Wolsey    ..........  161,  167 

Week  day  preaching.  .   198 
Witchcraft    ..........  249 

Westminster  Assembly 


.„ 

Women  as  patriots...   275 
Wales    ...........  287,  363 

William  and  Mary.  .  .  . 

,„  ..........   303,  306,  313 

Walpole  .............  326 

Whiteneld343,  353,  368,418 
Wesley,  John  ........ 

••344,  357,  368,  374,  418 
Wesley,  Charles  ..^44,  ^7 

IT  T          1  <-•  «JT^,      OJ/ 

Wesley,   Susanna    ....  350 


PAGE 

Watts,   Isaac    355 

Wilberforce,  Wm.  362,  368 
World's  Sunday  School 

Convention   373 

Wallis,  Mrs.  Beebe  . . .  370 
Wesleyan      Missionary 

Society  384 

Westminster      Confes- 
sions      394 

Wallace,   Alfred  R 408 

Week  of  Prayer.  .414,  468 
Woman's   Boards    ....  419 

Webb,    Captain 441 

Woman's         Christian 
Temperance    Union. . . 

,   •• 454,  455,  5i8 

Willard,  Frances  E.  . .  455 
Wilder  of  Princeton.. 

•• 477,  478 

Wesleyans   492,  499 


Young,    Brigham    463 

Young  Men's  Christian 

Association    . . .  .467,  474 
Young  People's   Socie- 
ties   467,  476 

Young  Men's  Institutes  473 
Young  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Association   . . .  475 


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